What is the subjunctive and why is it so important?

21 years of speaking English and what can I say? I am a boss. I get it right every time. I suppose that’s what you get for being blessed with it as your mother tongue. I haven’t had to memorise our atrocious number of irregular verbs or struggle over pronouncing though (thoe), ought (awt), through (throo), tough (tuff), cough (coff) ...and, well, I could go on. I don’t pretend I’m not fortunate, given that everyone else seems to want to learn English and this “just knowing” is of no use to anyone when I have to explain the rules. But what is this “subjunctive mood” by which I am constantly accosted in my Spanish lessons at Inhispania and why am I so bitter about it? It is a means of reflecting “SUBJECTIVE perceptions and untangibles” apparently. The indicative on the other hand “INDICATES facts”, quite simple really.

It is Spain’s treat for those of you arrogant enough to think you can master such a tongue and conquer this culture. To be quite honest, remove the subjunctive from my 2 and a half year’s study of Spanish and I’m not sure what’s left ... perhaps a few lonely lessons on pronouns. “Fear not, however!” she says. I am going to endear it to you. As a native speaker of English I struggle with the subjunctive as a concept. It just isn’t something we consciously use because in English the verb doesn’t tend to change (except to be) even if you could technically say we were using the subjunctive mood. The French and Italians have it easy in Spanish; we Germanic language natives must battle on!

So what is so great about the subjunctive and why do they persist in using it when we function nicely without?

Everyone knows the cliché of the passionate Spanish...well there you go, it’s not just a cultural stereotype perpetuated by TV and music, it’s actually embedded in their grammar. The mood of a verb, sometimes known as its mode, indicates what type of role it plays in a sentence and the speaker's attitude towards it. Spanish is genuinely in fact an emotional language whereas in cold, passionless English we would just add extra words to convey our context.

Compare these two sentences:
Indicative: Pedro come (Pedro is eating).
Subjunctive: Espero que Pedro coma. (I hope that Pedro is eating).

It isn’t particularly important to the sentence whether Pedro eats or not; what is important is the speaker’s reaction to it. This useful trick expresses doubt, uncertainty, denial, desire, commands and reactions.

So why not get in touch with your emotions, be a little passionate and conquer that subjunctive?! Learning Spanish in Spain and with native Spanish teachers at Inhispania has definitely made the subjunctive clearer for me. You are surrounded by it being used authentically and hey, you might even start to “just know” when it’s right!