Spanish: An Essential Grammar

Verb in main clause Subjunctive in

subordinate clause

present, future, perfect indicative present, perfect

imperfect, preterite, conditional, imperfect, pluperfect

pluperfect indicative

any form of command present

Me sorprende que haya cancelado.

I am surprised that he has cancelled.

No voy a sugerir que sea así.

I will not suggest that it may be so.

Le dije que no me molestara más.

I told her to stop bothering me.

¡Pídele que salga!

Ask him to leave!

Obviously, the above patterns are not fixed, since contexts occur in which,

for example, a present tense must by followed by a past tense and vice

versa, in order to convey the correct meaning.

Es una pena que estuvieras enfermo.

It is a pity that you were ill.

¿Qué hizo para que digas eso?

What did he do that makes you say that?

Additional uses of the-raform of the imperfect

subjunctive

For the use of the -raform as an alternative to the conditional tense in the

case of the verbs querer ‘to want’, deber ‘to have to’ andpoder ‘to be able

to’, see Chapter 16.

For the use of hubiera+ past participle in place of the conditional perfect

tense, see 13.1.2.2 (note 2).

12.5

1111

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

Additional

uses of the

• raform of
  the imperfect
  subjunctive

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