Me alegro de que . . .
Estoy triste de que . . .

What is the Subjunctive?

You may not be aware that Spanish has two moods (modos): the indicative and the subjunctive. Both the indicative and the subjunctive can be used in any and all the different verb tenses (tiempos) depending on which is required. The indicative expresses factual events and may commonly be associated with concrete statements (declaraciones) about events. Single clause statements almost always take the indicative.

For example: Maria walks to the store.

Por ejemplo: Maria camina a la tienda.

In contrast, the subjunctive reflects the subject's feelings, emotions, and attitudes regarding the events, or expresses uncertainty, doubt, and hypothetical situations. The subjunctive is most often used in complex sentences in which the subject in the main clause expresses an emotion or opinion about the action in the subordinant clause. The emotion, volition, doubt or uncertainty expressed in the main clause requires that the verb in the sorbordinant clause be subjunctive. How do I know if there is one or two clauses? The (subordinating) conjunction THAT/QUE joins the two clauses to create a complete sentence. It is the dividing line between the first (main or independent) and second (sobordinate or dependent) clauses of the sentence.

For example: Maria is happy THAT Juan arrives today.

Por ejemplo: Maria se alegra (indicative) de QUE Juan llegue (subjunctive) hoy.

Sometimes in English we leave out the conjunction THAT (For example: Maria is happy John arrives today.) but in Spanish we always use it.

Forms of the Present Subjunctive

The verb conjugations in the present subjunctive are relatively easy to form. For any verb ending in AR such as HABLAR, the conjugations will resemble directly those of any ER verb such as BEBER in its indicative form. In contrast, for any verb ending in ER or IR such as BEBER and VIVIR, the conjugations will resemble those of any AR verb in its indicative form. In other words, AR and ER/IR verb endings are reversed in the subjunctive. Take a moment to look at the chart below. Note that the first person YO form is the same as the third person EL/ELLA form and the second person formal USTED form. Because these conjugations are identical, it's not a bad idea to accompany the verb conjugation with its subject pronoun (yo, el, ella, usted) to distinguish one from the other.

Use of the Present Subjunctive

There are certain situations or statements in which the subjunctive must be used, just as there are with the indicative; however, there are other situations in which the subjunctive may or may not be used depending on what the speaker wants to convey. Let's focus in this explanation on those situations in which the subjunctive must be used.

These are the times when the subjunctive must be used:

• Expressing indirect or implied commands (volition): the subject of the main clause tries to influence the action of the subordinate clause.

  For example:
  What does the boss require?
  The boss requires THAT the employees arrive on time.
  
  Por ejemplo:
  Que quiere el jefe?
  El jefe quiere QUE los empleados lleguen a tiempo.

• Expressing emotion or opinions: the subject of the main clause expresses emotion or opinions about the action in the second clause.

  For example:
  What does the boss like?
  He likes THAT the employees arrive on time.
  
  Por ejemplo:
  Al jefe que le gusta?
  Le gusta QUE los empleados lleguen a tiempo.

• Expressing doubt, uncertainty and unreality: the subject of the main clause expresses doubt, uncertainty or unreality about the action in the second clause.

  For example:
  What does the boss doubt?
  He doubts THAT the employees arrive on time.
  
  Por ejemplo:
  Que duda el jefe?
  Duda QUE los empleados lleguen a tiempo.