Spanish questions??!?

Question

1. when do you use the subjunctive?

2. then what about the imperfect subjunctive and pluperfect subjunctive?

the whole subjunctive confuses me, i dont see why you couldnt just use preterite, etc tense instead.

thanks!

Answer 1

The subjunctive mood is used to express everything except certainty and objectivity: things like doubt, uncertainty, subjectivity, etc.

Yo dudo que usted vaya al Perú en diciembre.

I doubt that you are going to Peru in December.

The difference between indicative and subjunctive is the difference between certainty/objectivity (indicative) and possibility/subjectivity (subjunctive).

More information here:

http://www.studyspanish.com/lessons/subj...

Answer 2

The question of when to use the Spanish subjunctive is a huge one and itis quite impossible to explain it all in Yahoo Answers. But here are a few points:

(1) The pluperfect and imperfect subjunctive mean exactly the same and you can use either whenever you have to use a past subjunctive form.

(2) You cannot use the preterite instead of the subjunctive because (a) it would be wrong and (b) it can even change the meaning: for example: "Le dije que habló" (preterite) means "I told him that he or she spoke"; "Le dije que hablara"/"Le dije que hablase" (subjunctive) means "I told him to speak".

(3) If you are in difficulty, ASK YOUR TEACHER to explain it again or at least to tell you when to use the subjunctive and learn the examples. Your teacher may think you a pain but that's better than you being left behind in the class.