Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Conjunctions indicating cause

The most common of these is porque‘because’. This takes the indicative

unless it is negated:

Se quejó porque la habitación estaba sucia.

He complained because the room was dirty.

No se quejó porque la habitación estuviera sucia, sino

porque no había agua caliente en la ducha.

He didn’t complain because the room was dirty, but because there

was no hot water in the shower.

Note: Porquecan follow a negated clause without being negated itself. In this case

porquetakes the indicative, in accordance with the general rule: No me cae bien

porque es muy cínico‘I don’t like him because he is very cynical’.

Subjunctive in main clauses

As explained above, the subjunctive mainly occurs in subordinate clauses,

with the following exceptions.

For the subjunctive to express commands, see 19.2, 19.3.3.

Subjunctive after words meaning ‘perhaps’

In present and past time, after tal vez(talvez [LA]), quizá(s)and posible-

mente, the choice of the subjunctive rather than the indicative is made to

express what is considered to be a less likely possibility.

With regard to future time, the present subjunctive is the most common

choice, although the future indicative (never the present) is also found:

Tal vez no ha/haya pensado en ir.

Maybe he has not thought of going.

Quizás al final se pongan/se pondrán de acuerdo.

Perhaps in the end they will agree.

A lo mejor‘perhaps’ is very common in speech and is followed by the

indicative.

Acasois more formal in use, rare in speech and usually followed by the

subjunctive.

12.3.1

12.3

(^1111) 12.2.2.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

1011

1

12111

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

20111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

30111

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

40

41111

In main

clauses

157