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Forming the present subjunctive in Spanish

On the previous page, we discussed briefly what the subjunctive is. Spanish actually has a present subjunctive and a past subjunctive, and we'll look at the present subjunctive forms here.

The forms of the present subjunctive in Spanish are generally easy if you're familiar with the "ordinary" present tense (often technically called the present indicative). The present subjunctive is generally based on the present indicative as follows:

• if the verb is an -ar verb, the present subjunctive endings start with an e vowel (instead of a): pregunta > pregunte; preguntamos > preguntemos;
• for -er and -ir, this rule is "reversed", and the present subjunctive endings have an a vowel (whereas the "normal" present tense would have e or i): come > coma; comemos > comamos; partimos > partamos;
• if the verb has an irregular present tense yo form, then this generally forms the basis of the subjunctive (salgo > salga, salgamos);
• there are just a couple of completely irregular subjunctives (e.g. dar > dé; ir > vaya).

Example conjugations

Below are the verbs esperar and comer in the present subjunctive:

Next: practise the present subjunctive

On the next page is an exercise allowing you to practise the present subjunctive of regular verbs.

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