Present Subjunctive Spanish: A complete beginner-friendly guide

Present subjunctive Spanish is likely to be your first exploration into the subjunctive mood, which is used all the time in Spanish. In this post, we’re going to cover everything that you need to know to master using this common but misunderstood tense.

We’ll start with the basics, introducing the subjunctive mood and its tenses. Then we’ll focus on sentence structure, since the subjunctive is always used in dependent clauses. We’ll spend a fair amount of time explaining when to use the present subjunctive in Spanish, breaking it down into simple scenarios with examples. Then comes our section on Spanish present subjunctive conjugation, with full charts for both regular and irregular verbs.

Once our lesson is complete, we’ll finish up with some practice exercises to let you see how well you’ve grasped the present subjunctive tense in Spanish. It may seem like a lot to digest, but if you follow through to the end you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised at how much you’ve learned from today’s beginner-friendly guide to present subjunctive Spanish!

In this video, Mafalda gives a quick overview of the main points that we cover in today’s blog post. For the complete lesson with all the elements you need to master the present subjunctive tense, read on!

What is the Present Subjunctive in Spanish?

Before we go any further on this specific tense, let’s take a step back to make sure that you fully understand what the subjunctive mood is.

The subjunctive mood

The subjunctive is one of the three moods that we use in Spanish, along with the indicative mood and the imperative mood.

In contrast to the indicative mood that’s used for making factual statements, or the imperative mood which is used for giving commands, the subjunctive mood is used when the speaker wants to express a lack of certainty in a statement. In other words, it’s what we use when speaking about a thought, a belief, an expectation, or an assumption, whenever we need to acknowledge that there’s a bit of doubt about whether the statement is actually true.

The subjunctive tenses

The present subjunctive is the most common of six tenses in the Spanish subjunctive mood. Four of them are fairly common: the present subjunctive, the present perfect subjunctive, the imperfect subjunctive, and the past perfect subjunctive. The other two subjunctive tenses are no longer really used in contemporary Spanish: the future subjunctive and the future perfect subjunctive.

We have a related post where we give a broader overview of these six subjunctive tenses, while we have another comprehensive post that introduces all the verb tenses in Spanish.

The important thing to remember here is that the subjunctive mood is used to indicate some level of uncertainty, while the tense is related to when the action is occurring.

The present subjunctive tense

Despite the name of the present subjunctive in Spanish, this particular tense can be used to speak about actions that aren’t necessarily occurring at the present. Let’s see a couple of examples, both of which use the present subjunctive tense in Spanish:

• Espero que estés bien. – I hope you are fine. (occurring in the present)

• Felicitaremos al corredor que llegue primero. – We will congratulate the runner who arrives first. (occurring in the future)

Whether we’re referring to how you may be doing right now or to which runner may arrive first, we’re using the subjunctive because there’s some uncertainty in both of these statements. Maybe you’re not doing fine right now, though I hope you are. And the race is still underway, so we still can’t tell which runner we’ll congratulate. The first parts of the sentences set the scene for a bit of uncertainty, so the second parts require the present subjunctive!

We’ll spend the rest of this post learning to master present subjunctive Spanish, but first we need to take a slight detour to examine these two parts of sentences, known as clauses.

Subjunctive clauses

The subjunctive mood is always found in dependent clauses. As you might expect, these are always subordinate to independent clauses. Let’s take a few minutes to see how these clauses work. Let’s start with some definitions:

1. A clause is a group of words with a subject and conjugated verb. The subject tells us whom or what the sentence is about, and the verb tells us what the subject does.

2. An independent clause can stand on its own as a full sentence. It can make sense without any additional information. Here’s a simple example:

• [Sofia saw a dog.]

3. A dependent clause has a subject and a conjugated verb, but it doesn’t make sense on its own without a preceding clause to introduce it. These are also known as subordinate clauses. Building on the example from above, here’s a dependent clause:

• [She wants to adopt.]

The independent clause makes sense on its own, while the subordinate clause relies on being introduced by another clause to make sense. But taken together, we clearly understand the information in both clauses.

• [Sofia saw a dog] [she wants to adopt.]

4. A relative pronoun (usually que) normally connects the independent and dependent clauses in Spanish. Relative pronouns include that, which, and who, though these can frequently be omitted in English.

• [Sofia saw a dog] that [she wants to adopt.]

Ok, so what do independent clauses, subordinate clauses, and the relative pronoun que have to do with the subjunctive? Once you’re familiar with these two parts of a sentence, it will be easy to identify where to use the subjunctive! Here’s the secret:

Initial clauses that express some uncertainty are followed by dependent clauses in the subjunctive.

An independent clause cannot be in the subjunctive, so it will always be either in the indicative or the imperative. Then, if there’s some doubt involved in the first clause’s statement, the dependent clause is in the subjunctive. Let’s see this with an example:

• Espero que llegues a tiempo. – I hope that you arrive on time.

In this example I’m expressing a hope for the action to happen, but since it’s just a hope it’s uncertain that you actually will arrive on time. The independent clause is “[yo] espero,” meaning “I hope.” The dependent clause is “[tú] llegues a tiempo,” meaning “you arrive on time.” They’re connected by “que,” meaning “that,” which is a relative pronoun referring back to my hope.

Ok, at this point you should have a clear understanding about the importance of clauses to today’s lesson, since the subjunctive will always be triggered by an introductory clause. The other vital clue you should catch here is that the relative pronoun que is often a surefire sign that the following clause will take the subjunctive.

We’ll end our detour here and move on to more details about present subjunctive Spanish. If you want a comprehensive list of intro clauses that lead to the subjunctive in their dependent clauses, check out our advanced post on subjunctive trigger words and phrases.

When to use Present Subjunctive Spanish

So far in today’s lesson we’ve been very general in explaining when to use the subjunctive mood, since there are several different tenses that all follow the same rules about uncertainty and clauses that we discussed above. The rules we explain below can also be applied to the other subjunctive tenses, but we’re demonstrating them strictly with present subjunctive examples.

So which tenses in the initial clause require us to use the present subjunctive tense over any of the other subjunctive tenses? Whenever the initial clause is in the simple present tense, the simple future tense, or the affirmative imperative tense, the dependent clause will take the present subjunctive tense.

Now let’s see some of the most common scenarios where the independent clause will trigger the present subjunctive tense in Spanish. We’ll introduce them in order from most common to least common, so you’ll be using the subjunctive properly most of the time even if you only master the first few scenarios.

To help make things clear in our examples, we’ll put the key trigger phrase in italics, and the present subjunctive conjugation in bold.

Expressing wishes or hope

This is probably the most common scenario where we use the present subjunctive in Spanish, since we’re constantly making statements about what we’re hoping for. Since the outcome is uncertain, we follow our statement of wish or hope with a clause in the subjunctive.

• Deseo que vengan a mi fiesta. – I would like for you to come to my party.
• Deseamos que vengas a nuestra boda. – We would like for you to come to our wedding.
• Deseo que tengas un buen día. – I wish for you to have a good day.
• Espero que te disfrutes la torta. – I hope that you enjoy the cake.
• Exigimos que nos paguen ya. – We demand that you pay us now.
• Prefiero que viajes solo. – I prefer that you travel alone.
• Pido que sean más amables. – I request that you be more kind.
• Quiero que estudies español. – I want you to study Spanish.
• ¿Necesitas que te ayude? – Do you need me to help you?
• Espero que estés feliz. – I hope that you’re happy.
• Ojalá [que] no llueva hoy. – Hopefully it won’t rain today.

That last example uses a very common introductory word to express hope, ojalá. It’s not an independent phrase on its own, but it always triggers the subjunctive. Including que after ojalá is optional. Translations of ojalá can range between I hope, let’s hope, I wish, or if only. Check out our dedicated post on ojalá in Spanish for a full explanation of its use and meanings.

Expressing doubts

If the first clause clearly states a doubt, like I doubt that or I’m not sure that, then the dependent clause takes the present subjunctive in Spanish.

• Dudo que vengan a mi fiesta. – I doubt that you’ll come to my party.
• No estoy seguro de que sea la mejor idea. – I’m not sure that it’s the best idea.
• No parece que estés muy contento. – It doesn’t seem that you’re very happy.

Likewise, the subjunctive is triggered when we begin a statement with single words that express doubt, such as perhaps and maybe. These aren’t independent clauses like we’ve seen so far, but they’re still among the many subjunctive trigger words in Spanish.

• Tal vez me guste esa película. – Perhaps I’ll like that movie.
• Quizás vivamos un tiempo en Barcelona. – Maybe we’ll live in Barcelona for a while.

This rule about needing to use the subjunctive when expressing doubts can get confusing when giving opinions, since affirmative opinions are often expressed with certainty by using the indicative. These same introductory statements in the negative, however, express uncertainty, so their corresponding subordinate clauses will take the subjunctive. Let’s see this in a series of paired examples where we put the subjunctive trigger phrases in italics:

• Creo que ella viene. – I believe that she is coming. (indicative)
• No creo que ella venga. – I don’t believe that she’s coming. (subjunctive)

• Estoy seguro de que él vendrá. – I’m sure that he will come. (indicative)
• No estoy seguro de que él venga. – I’m not sure he will come. (subjunctive)

• Pienso que él está aquí. – I think that he’s here. (indicative)
• No pienso que él esté aquí. – I don’t think that he’s here. (subjunctive)

• Opino que ella tiene razón. – I think that she is right. (indicative)
• No opino que ella tenga razón. – I don’t think that she is right. (subjunctive)

To sum up this last part of the rules about certainty vs uncertainty in opinions, here’s a quick reference list of typical phrases that will trigger the indicative in the affirmative and the subjunctive in the negative:

Creo que / No creo que	I believe that / I don’t believe that
Estoy seguro de que / No estoy seguro de que	I’m sure that / I’m not sure that
Pienso que / No pienso que	I think that / I don’t think that
Opino que / No opino que	I’m of the opinion that / I’m not of the opinion that
Me parece que / No me parece que	It appears to me that / It doesn’t appear to me that

Expressing emotions and feelings

When the speaker states how they feel about an existing situation, the situation they’re referring to is stated in the present subjunctive. Such trigger phrases can include I’m happy that, I’m sad that, or I’m surprised that.

Compared with the other scenarios we’ve seen so far, what’s the link with uncertainty here? It’s that the speaker isn’t taking the situation for granted, admitting that it could be otherwise and they might feel differently if that were the case.

Let’s see how this works with an example, where we start with a situation that’s currently a fact: “Tienes tantos amigos.” – “You have so many friends.” On its own, this is an independent clause that uses the present indicative tense. I love this situation, so I’ll use the present subjunctive when I express my feelings about it:

• Me encanta que tengas tantos amigos. – I love that you have so many friends.

Maybe I’d feel differently if you didn’t have so many friends, so I use the subjunctive when introducing it as such. We do the same with other expressions of feelings or emotions:

• Me sorprende que estés temprano en casa. – I’m surprised that you are home early.
• Lamento que tengas que trabajar. – I’m sorry that you have to work.
• Me alegra que cantes en Español. – It makes me happy that you sing in Spanish.
• Me hace feliz que estés aquí. – It makes me happy that you’re here.
• Me entristece que no tengas tiempo para mí. – It makes me sad that you don’t have time for me.

Explaining purpose

Here we’re moving away from the sentence structure where the initial clause determines the need for the subjunctive in the subordinate clause. Instead, it’s how we link the two that triggers the subjunctive.

In these cases, the subjunctive is triggered by specific linking phrases that allow us to explain a purpose. We can often translate them all as so that, as you’ll see in our examples below, but there are also some alternative translations for most of them:

para que	so that, in order that
a fin de que	so that, in order that
con el fin de que	with the purpose that
con el propósito de que	with the purpose that
con la intención de que	with the intention that
con el objetivo de que	with the objective that
con el deseo de que	with the desire that
con la esperanza de que	with the hope that

Now let’s see these in action, with italics for the linking phrases and bolding for the purpose that’s in the present subjunctive.

• Él trabaja para que sus hijos estudien. – He works so that his children may study.
• El dinero es para que compren el almuerzo. – The money is so that you may buy lunch.
• Él estudia mucho a fin de que pueda aprobar el examen. – He studies a lot so that he may pass the exam.
• Preparo todo con la intención de que ellos se sientan cómodos. – I prepare everything so that they may feel comfortable.
• Les doy instrucciones claras con el objetivo de que no cometan errores. – I give them clear instructions so that they don’t make mistakes.

Telling someone to make someone else do something

We’re getting into a fairly uncommon sentence structure here, but we’ll include it here for completeness. Usually when we give orders with the imperative mood, we’re telling the listener what to do. But what if we tell them to get someone else to do something?

In this sentence structure we start with the imperative tense followed by que. Then we use the present subjunctive to state the action we want the listener to oblige someone else to do. Let’s see some examples:

• Pide que ellos ayuden en el evento. – Ask that they help at the event.
• Dile que no toque mis cosas. – Tell him not to touch my things.
• Permite que tus hijos jueguen un rato. – Allow your kids to play for a while.
• Prohíbe que los niños crucen solos la calle. – Prohibit the children from crossing the street alone.
• Manda que el perro no entre a la cocina. – Command that the dog doesn’t enter the kitchen.
• Enseña a los estudiantes que respeten a los demás. – Teach the students to respect others.
• Garantiza que los invitados se sientan cómodos. – Ensure that the guests feel comfortable.

Negative commands

The last situation where we use the present subjunctive tense in Spanish is when we give orders in the negative. (This is in contrast to what we saw in the previous section, where we started all of the example sentences with affirmative commands in the imperative tense.)

The use of the present subjunctive tense we’re looking at in this section actually falls within the imperative mood, since it’s a way to give orders, but it’s expressed using present subjunctive tense conjugations.

• No fume. – Do not smoke.
• No vengas muy tarde. – Do not come too late.
• No hables tan rápido. – Don’t speak so fast.
• No salgas sin tu abrigo. – Don’t go out without your coat.
• No comas tanto azúcar. – Don’t eat so much sugar.
• No me digas mentiras. – Don’t tell me lies.
• No escribas en el libro de la biblioteca. – Don’t write in the library book.

Present Subjunctive Spanish Conjugation

Now that you know when to use the present subjunctive tense in Spanish, it’s time to learn its conjugations. We’ll start with the straightforward rules for regular verbs, then we’ll see conjugation tables for the most important subjunctive irregular verbs.

Present subjunctive conjugation: Regular verbs

If you know how to conjugate regular verbs in the simple present tense of the indicative mood, you can get the present subjunctive endings by just switching one letter. In fact, to demonstrate how easy it is, we’ll compare the simple present tense in the indicative mood vs the subjunctive mood side by side, so that you can see how similar they are.

For regular -ar verbs, the vowels from the present indicative endings change to -e- in the present subjunctive endings. Let’s see this with the regular verb comprar, meaning to buy. Note that the vosotros form keeps an accent on its -é- in the present subjunctive, just as the present indicative had an accent on its -á-.

	present indicative	present subjunctive
yo	compro	compre
tú	compras	compres
él, ella, usted	compra	compre
nosotros, nosotras	compramos	compremos
vosotros, vosotras	compráis	compréis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	compran	compren

For regular -er verbs, we change the vowel to -a- in the present subjunctive endings. We’ll show this with comer, which is a regular verb meaning to eat. The same rule applies to keeping the accent on the vosotros form.

	present indicative	present subjunctive
yo	como	coma
tú	comes	comas
él, ella, usted	come	coma
nosotros, nosotras	comemos	comamos
vosotros, vosotras	coméis	comáis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	comen	coman

We make the same change to regular -ir verbs, so they have the same present subjunctive endings with -a-. Let’s use vivir as our example verb here, meaning to live. Don’t forget to keep the accent in the vosotros form.

	present indicative	present subjunctive
yo	vivo	viva
tú	vives	vivas
él, ella, usted	vive	viva
nosotros, nosotras	vivimos	vivamos
vosotros, vosotras	vivís	viváis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	viven	vivan

To sum up, here’s our conjugation chart for all the present subjunctive tense endings for regular verbs in Spanish.

	-ar verbs	-er verbs	-ir verbs
yo	-e	-a	-a
tú	-es	-as	-as
él, ella, usted	-e	-a	-a
nosotros, nosotras	-emos	-mos	-mos
vosotros, vosotras	-éis	-áis	-áis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	-en	-an	-an

Before we look at our irregular conjugations, let’s wrap up this section with a few more examples using regular verbs in the present subjunctive tense.

• Ella espera que hable en la conferencia. – She expects that I’ll speak at the conference.
• Mamá quiere que comas toda la cena. – Mom wants you to eat the whole dinner.
• Dudo que ella viva mucho tiempo en esta ciudad. – I doubt that she’ll live for a long time in this city.
• No es posible que creamos en sus palabras. – It’s not possible that we believe his words.
• Espero que no beban mucho esta noche. – I hope that they don’t drink too much tonight.
• Queremos que compren mucha comida. – We want you to buy a lot of food.

Present subjunctive conjugation: Irregular verbs

With the regular verbs we’ve seen so far, the present subjunctive stem is easily derived by removing the final -er, -ar, or -ir from the infinitives. Many verbs, however, have irregular stems in the present subjunctive tense that need to be memorized.

The good news is that, even for verbs with irregular present subjunctive stems, we can still apply the same regular endings to them. We’ll take a look at some of these before discussing exceptions. We’ll start with ser, which means to be, tener, which means to have or to hold, and hacer, which means to do or to make. Click through for full conjugation tables of each one.

	ser	tener	hacer
irregular stem	se-	teng-	hag-
yo	sea	tenga	haga
tú	seas	tengas	hagas
él, ella, usted	sea	tenga	haga
nosotros, nosotras	seamos	tengamos	hagamos
vosotros, vosotras	seáis	tengáis	hagáis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	sean	tengan	hagan

Did you notice that all of the endings here are exactly the same as we saw for regular verbs? Only the stem is irregular. Now let’s do the same thing with decir, venir, and salir, which mean, respectively, to say, to come, and to go out.

	decir	venir	salir
irregular stem	dig-	veng-	salg-
yo	diga	venga	salga
tú	digas	vengas	salgas
él, ella, usted	diga	venga	salga
nosotros, nosotras	digamos	vengamos	salgamos
vosotros, vosotras	digáis	vengáis	salgáis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	digan	vengan	salgan

To wrap up this set of verbs with irregular present subjunctive stems, let’s see two last verbs that are used constantly in Spanish. Haber is our standard auxiliary verb for all the compound tenses, like have in English. Ir is our verb for to go, while it’s also used to talk about the near future like going to in English.

	haber	ir
irregular stem	hay-	vay-
yo	haya	vaya
tú	hayas	vayas
él, ella, usted	haya	vaya
nosotros, nosotras	hayamos	vayamos
vosotros, vosotras	hayáis	vayáis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	hayan	vayan

Things get a bit more complicated with some irregular verbs, where the stems can differ between the grammatical persons just like they can in the present indicative. Sometimes this involves a slight spelling change, and sometimes it involves certain forms taking accents and others remaining unaccented. The good news is that these differences usually mirror the same differences seen in the present indicative tense, so these irregular forms begin to make more sense in the bigger picture of a given verb’s conjugations.

We can’t go into all the variants in today’s lesson, but it’s important you’re aware that there are other possibilities with irregular stems as you advance in your mastery of the present subjunctive tense.

Irregular endings are rare, but there’s one verb that’s so important we’ll end our section on present subjunctive conjugation with it: estar. Notice that although the stem, est-, is regular, and the endings resemble those of regular -ar verbs we saw earlier, the accented é vs unaccented e in the endings are irregular. Check out our related posts for full estar conjugation charts, and for how to use estar.

	estar
stem	est-
yo	esté
tú	estés
él, ella, usted	esté
nosotros, nosotras	estemos
vosotros, vosotras	estéis
ellos, ellas, ustedes	estén

Conclusion: Present subjunctive Spanish

Now that we’re at the end of our lesson, how do you feel about the present subjunctive tense? We know the subjunctive has a reputation among learners for being difficult, but we’ve seen today that it can be masterered by applying a fairly straightforward set of rules. Let’s do a quick recap before we go, and then we’ll end with a few practice exercises to see how you do.

We started off with a broad overview of the three verbal moods in Spanish, emphasizing that the six tenses of the subjunctive mood are always used to imply that there’s some level of doubt or uncertainty to a statement.

We then took a slight detour to discuss sentence structure, since the subjunctive mood can only ever be used in dependent clauses. The first part of a sentence always introduces the source of uncertainty, which is then followed by the dependent clause in the subjunctive.

We looked at a number of contexts into which we can group these introductions, starting with the most common ones of expressing wishes or expressing doubts. These are the most common phrases that trigger the subjunctive in Spanish.

We nonetheless covered the less common contexts as well, from explaining the purpose for something with para que, to using the imperative mood to tell someone to compel someone else to do something. Finally, we saw that when we give negative commands, we use the present subjunctive conjugations even though the command form technically falls within the imperative mood.

We ended our post with a lesson on present subjunctive conjugation, showing how the regular endings are actually quite straightforward. While we mentioned some of the possibile variants for irregular conjugations, we limited our treatment of them to a set of common verbs that just have the same irregular stem in all their forms.

Overall, today’s post has provided a comprehensive overview of the present subjunctive tense in Spanish. If you consider yourself a beginner and you’ve grasped everything we’ve outlined here, you’re well on your way to an intermediate level of Spanish! Beyond studying the basics like this, of course the best way to improve is to actually use everything you’re learning. So go ahead and apply what you’ve seen here whenever you speak and write in Spanish, and you’ll soon have an excellent grasp of present subjunctive Spanish!

Present subjunctive Spanish practice

All of the sentences here require the present subjunctive tense in their dependent clauses. Based on the context of the sentence, and using the English translation as a guide, insert the correct present subjunctive conjugation of the verb in parentheses. The answers are below.

1. Estoy buscando un apartamento que _____ una terraza. (tener) – I’m looking for an apartment that has a terrace.

2. Ella quiere una secretaria que _____ español. (hablar) – She wants a secretary who speaks Spanish.

3. Necesito que _____ a tiempo a la reunión. (llegar) – I need you to get to the meeting on time.

4. Queremos que los niños _____ clases de guitarra. (tomar) – We want children to take guitar lessons.

5. Esperamos que _____ su estadía en el hotel. (disfrutar) – We hope you enjoy your stay at the hotel.

6. Ojalá mañana _____ ir a la playa. (poder) – Hopefully tomorrow we can go to the beach.

7. Voy a solicitar una beca cuando _____ a la universidad. (ir) – I’m going to apply for a scholarship when I go to college.

8. Es increíble que todavía _____ sus mentiras. (creer) – It’s amazing that you still believe his lies

ANSWERS

1. Estoy buscando un apartamento que tenga una terraza.

2. Ella quiere una secretaria que hable español.

3. Necesito que llegues a tiempo a la reunión.

4. Queremos que los niños tomen clases de guitarra.

5. Esperamos que disfruten su estadía en el hotel.

6. Ojalá mañana podamos ir a la playa.

7. Voy a solicitar una beca cuando vaya a la universidad.

8. Es increíble que todavía creas sus mentiras.