Le pagan poco, aunque él nunca se queja.
They don’t pay him very much, although he never complains.
Vamos a nadar aunque llueva.
We are going to swim even if it rains.
No iría a su fiesta aunque él me invitara personalmente.
I wouldn’t go to his party even if he invited me personally.However, like English ‘even if’, aunque+ subjunctive can also be factual
in cases when something is expressed as being contrary to expectation:
Tiene que pensar en ello aunque sea todavía muy joven.
He has to start to think about it, even if he is still very young.
Notes:
1 A pesar de que‘despite the fact that’ can be used in a concessive sense, in which
case it takes the subjunctive with the meaning ‘even if’: No aceptaría la resolu-
ción a pesar de que la mayoría la adoptara ‘He would not accept the resolution
even if the majority adopted it’.
2 There are several other concessive conjunctions in Spanish, namely aun cuando, si
bienand the literary asíand siquiera, which generally follow the usage of aunque.Conjunctions indicating purpose and result
Items like de manera/modo/forma que‘in order that’, ‘with the result that’
indicate result when used with the indicativeand they express purpose (like
para quein 12.2.1.1) when they are followed by the subjunctive:¡Escóndelo en el cajón de modo que nadie lo descubra!
Hide it in the drawer in order that/so that no one will find it!
Lo escondió en el cajón de modo que nadie lo descubrió.
He hid it in the drawer with the result that no one found it.Conditional conjunctionsThe most common conditional conjunction is si‘if’, which is discussed in
Chapter 13.
However como, which means ‘as’ when followed by the indicative, is condi-
tional when followed by the subjunctive:Como no salgamos en los próximos cinco minutos vamos a
perder el avión.
If we don’t leave in the next five minutes we’re going to miss the
flight.12.2.2.412.2.2.31111
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
12
Subjunctive
mood