INDICATIVE VS.

SUBJUNTIVE
 • In Spanish, the indicative mood is used to talk
about facts and objective reality. Most of the
tenses that you learn in a beginner or intermediate
Spanish class—present, imperfect, preterite, future,
conditional and so on—are indicative.
• Here are some sentences that use verbs in the
WHAT IS indicative mood:
THE • Yo tengo un perro. (I have a dog.)
INDICATIVE
• Ella quiere ir a la playa. (She wants to go to the beach.)
MOOD?
• Mañana mi hermano y yo jugaremos al
futbol. (Tomorrow, my brother and I will play soccer.)
• All of these sentences describe an objective reality, so
we use the indicative mood.
 WHAT IS THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD?

On the other hand, the subjunctive mood is used to express uncertainty,

desires, wants, recommendations, opinions and other non-objective
types of expression.

The English language does have present and past subjunctive moods
but if you’re a native English speaker, you might not notice when you
use them. If you’ve never encountered the Spanish subjunctive before,
understanding how to identify it first in English can help you figure
out when to use it in Spanish.
THE WHY
• Check out the verb usage in the following indicative and subjunctive
sentences:
• Indicative: “She studies before the test.”
• Subjunctive: “The teacher recommends that she study before the
test.”
• This is one example of the English subjunctive; you’ll mostly see it
after “that” clauses, like in the above sentence. Notice how, in the
subjunctive mood, the present-tense verb “she studies” changes to
“that she study.”
• Here’s another one for the past tense:
• Indicative: “I was very young in 1998.”
• Subjunctive: “If I were young again, I’d do things
differently.”
• See how “I was” changes to “I were”? This is the English
past subjunctive in action.
• The same is true in Spanish:
• Indicative: Ella siempre anda en bicicleta. (She always rides
her bike.)
• Subjunctive: Ella quiere que su hermano ande en
bicicleta. (She wants her brother to ride his bike.)
• In Spanish, as in English, there’s a present subjunctive and a
past subjunctive, both of which have their own conjugation
rules and usages.
 • In any beginner Spanish class, you’ll learn to
describe your own actions and other people’s
actions using the indicative mood.
1. USE THE
I N D I C AT I V E TO • Ella lee el diario / periódico cada día. (She reads
DESCRIBE the newspaper every day.)
P E O P L E ’ S AC T I O N S
AND THE • Ustedes toman el autobus / bus. (You guys
S U B J U N C T I V E TO
DESCRIBE take the bus.)
PEOPLE’S
THOUGHTS ON • Tú siempre dices la verdad. (You always tell
T H O S E AC T I O N S . the truth.)
• Ellas van al doctor. (They go to the doctor.)
• However, when commenting on these actions—expressing likes, dislikes, preferences,
and other sorts of opinions—you’ll have to change these verbs into the subjunctive mood.
• A mí me gusta que ella lea el diario / periódico cada día. (I like that she reads the newspaper
every day.)
• La profesora sugiere que ustedes tomen el autobús / bus. (The professor suggests that you
guys take the bus.)
• Yo respeto que tú siempre digas la verdad. (I respect that you always tell the truth.)
• Es importante que ellas vayan al doctor. (It’s important that they go to the doctor.)
 • Here’s where things start to get tricky. We might think that
beliefs are more like opinions than objective facts but in
Spanish, you have to use the indicative mood to talk about
positive beliefs.
• Yo creo que ella volverá a casa esta noche. (I believe that
2. USE THE
she’ll come home tonight.)
INDICATIVE
FOR BELIEFS • On the other hand, if someone’s expressing doubt or
AND THE uncertainty, use the subjunctive mood.
SUBJUNCTIVE • Yo no creo que ella vuelva a casa esta noche. (I don’t believe
FOR DOUBTS. that she’ll come home tonight.)
• Here, what’s important isn’t the truth of the claim—it’s
the person’s own perception of the situation. If
they’re expressing a positive belief, use the indicative; if
they’re expressing a doubt, use the subjunctive.
 • The conditional tense (the Spanish equivalent of
the English phrase “I would…”) falls under the
broad umbrella of indicative tenses. So, when
talking about what you or others would do in a
given situation, use the conditional tense rather
3. USE THE than the subjunctive.
I N D I C AT I V E TO
FINISH THE • Yo haría lo mismo en su situación. (I’d do the same
SENTENCE “I
WO U L D … ” A N D in her situation.)
THE SUBJUNCTIVE
TO F I N I S H T H E • Very frequently, you’ll see a conditional verb
SENTENCE “I accompanied by a subjunctive verb when trying
WA N T … ” to express things in an “if…then” format:
• Si ella tuviera que mudarse, se iría a Londres. (If
she had to move, she’d go to London.) Here, the
verb tuviera (had) is the past subjunctive and se
iría (would go) is the conditional.
• On the other hand, when talking about wants or desires, use the
subjunctive. In these situations, you can frequently tell that you need
to use the subjunctive when you see the word que (that). For
example:
• Yo quiero que tú me hables. (I want you to talk to me.)
• Él espera que nosotros vengamos a su fiesta de cumpleaños. (He hopes
that we’ll come to his birthday party.)
 • This is a slight caveat to the previous rule
about wishes, wants, preferences and desires.
When somebody’s commenting on their
4. USE THE
I N D I C AT I V E TO own actions, there’s no need for the
TA L K A B O U T YO U R
AC T I O N S A N D T H E
subjunctive. Instead, just use the infinitive
S U B J U N C T I V E TO
TA L K A B O U T
form.
OT H E R S ’ AC T I O N S
( U S UA L LY ) . • Yo quiero viajar a Irlanda. (I want to travel to
Ireland.)
• In this case, you’re expressing a desire to do
something yourself (go to Ireland), so you use
the indicative.
• If, on the other hand, you were expressing
a desire for somebody else to do
something, you’d use the subjunctive. So,
to say “I want my sister to travel to
Ireland,” you’d use the subjunctive: Yo
quiero que mi hermana viaje a Irlanda.
• Here’s another example:
• Mis padres prefieren cenar temprano. (My
parents prefer to eat dinner early.)
• Because your parents are talking about
preferences in their own actions, use the
infinitive.
• On the other hand:
• Mis padres prefieren que
tú cenes temprano. (My parents
prefer that you eat dinner early.)
• In this sentence, your parents are
expressing a preference
for somebody else’s actions, so
you must use the subjunctive.
• As a general rule, don’t use the
subjunctive mood to talk about your
own actions. You might, however, hear
exceptions to this in spoken Spanish. For
example:
• No creo que (yo) vaya al concierto. (I don’t
think I’ll go to the concert.)
• However, it’d be just as correct to use the
indicative construction and say:
• No creo ir al concierto. (I don’t think I’ll go to
the concert.)
 • Since the subjunctive mood is all about doubts and
uncertainties, you might think it’d pair perfectly with
the word si (if).
5. USE THE
I N D I C AT I V E TO • Unfortunately, it’s not that simple.
TA L K A B O U T
REALISTIC • If the verb you’re using after si talks about some future
S I T UAT I O N S A N D
THE SUBJUNCTIVE occurrence, use the indicative mood.
TO TA L K A B O U T
I M AG I N A RY • Si llueve, no iremos a la playa. (If it rains, we won’t go
S I T UAT I O N S .
to the beach.)
• Si ganamos el partido, celebraremos durante toda la
noche. (If we win the game, we’ll celebrate all night
long.)
• At this point, you might think: “Wait a second! These si clauses
represent uncertainty and possibility, not objective reality! So, why
are we using the indicative here?”
• The reason is that, even if those phrases don’t represent objective
fact, they do represent realistic situations. On the other hand,
you can use the subjunctive mood to slightly change the meaning of
your sentence and express unlikely or impossible
circumstances.
• Take the two following sentences:
• Si llueve, no iremos a la playa. (If it rains,
we won’t go to the beach.)
• On the other hand:
• Si lloviera, no iríamos a la playa. (If it
rained, we wouldn’t go to the beach.)
• Can you detect the slight difference in the meanings
between these two sentences? In the first, which uses
the indicative llueve, the speaker’s talking about the
real possibility that it’ll rain, and explaining what’ll
happen in that instance. In the second sentence, the
rain seems like a distant possibility, as expressed
by the subjunctive lloviera.
• To go a step further, you can use a pluperfect
subjunctive conjugation to describe a completely
imaginary, impossible situation that might have
occurred but didn’t.
• Si hubiera llovido, no habríamos ido a la playa. (If it
had rained, we wouldn’t have gone to the beach.)
 • You’ve probably learned to make Spanish
6. USE THE
commands or requests using the imperative,
I N D I C AT I V E TO or mandato, form. The imperative tense is
MAKE DIRECT
REQUESTS AND indicative.
THE
SUBJUNCTIVE • There are both formal and informal
TO M A K E conjugations in the imperative form. For
POLITE
REQUESTS. example:
• Informal: Pásame el sal. (Pass me the salt.)
• Formal: Páseme el sal. (Pass me the salt.)
• Both of these sentences mean the same thing and they both use the imperative tense. But
the second one has an extra layer of formality and politeness because it uses
the usted form.
• However, if you want to be even more formal and more polite, you can incorporate the
subjunctive. This is used to convey utter respect in your request. This can be done in a few
ways.
• You can use the word quisiera (I want):
• Quisiera que me pase el sal. (I’d like for you to pass me the salt.)
• Or you can use the phrase si pudieras… (If you could…):
• Si pudieras, ¿me pasarías el sal? (If you could, would you pass me the salt?)
• You may have already noticed a few of
these triggers throughout this article.
Some common phrases that go with
7. RECOGNIZE
the indicative mood are: WO R D S A N D
• creer (to believe) P H R A S E S T H AT
ARE
• decir (to say) F R E Q U E N T LY
PA I R E D W I T H
• es cierto que (it’s certain that) THE
SUBJUNCTIVE.
• es claro que (it’s obvious that)
• On the other hand, some trigger phrases that signal use of the subjunctive
mood are:
• desear (to desire)
• querer (to want)
• dudar (to doubt)
• sugerir (to suggest)
• me gusta que (I like that)
• es importante que (it’s important that)
TABL E OF WOR DS
AND PH R ASE S
T H AT T R I G GER
T H E SUB J UNCT IV E
TAB L E OF WOR DS
AND PH R ASE S
T H AT T R I G GER
T H E I NDI C ATI V E
 VIDEO

• https://study.com/academy/lesson/subjunctive-versus-indicative-in-spanish.html
 REFERENCES

• https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/subjunctive-vs-indicative-spanish/
• https://www.spanishdict.com/guide/subjunctive-vs-indicative-in-spanish
 ACTIVITIES

• https://www.profedeele.es/actividad/cancion/shakira-alejandro-sanz-la-tortura/
• https://www.profedeele.es/actividad/gramatica/indicativo-y-subjuntivo/