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Question on use of Spanish subjunctive | ||
Tags: Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5172 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 1 of 3 07 June 2012 at 7:49pm | IP Logged |
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I understand the Spanish subjunctive fairly well, but right now I am struggling with determining when the
present perfect subjunctive should be used and when the imperfect. I know about the sequence of tenses, but my grammar book says that sometimes "when the main clause is in the present tense and requires the subjunctive, but the verb in the main clause refers to an action in the past, the subordinate clause is in the imperfect subjunctive." Example sentences: #1: Ella espera que yo no gastara todo el dinero. (She hopes that I didn't spend all the money.) #2: Estoy contento de que él estudiara. (I'm happy that he studied.) This use of the imperfect subjunctive confused me, because I thought this was the way the present perfect subjunctive was used. In my book, it says that the present perfect subjunctive is used when the main clause in the present tense requires the use of the subjunctive and "refers to an action that may have taken place." How is saying "Ella espera que yo no haya gastado todo el dinero" or "Estoy contento de que él haya estudiado" any different than using sentences #s 1 and 2 above? Thanks in advance! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Javi Senior Member Spain Joined 5982 days ago 419 posts - 548 votes Speaks: Spanish* | Message 2 of 3 09 June 2012 at 9:29pm | IP Logged |
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Yeah, those sentences are considered correct nowadays, and they are widely used,
especially in Spain, because many Spaniards draw a distinction between comiera/haya comido which mimics the one between comió/ha comido. That may not be true in many places in Latin America, where people would prefer haya comido no matter the circumstances. If you ask me, "espero que no gastara todo el dinero" means that you're talking about an opportunity to spend the money that's in the past, over. On the other hand "haya gastado" means "till now", so if he hasn't spent the money, he still could do it. Edited by Javi on 09 June 2012 at 9:33pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5172 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 3 of 3 10 June 2012 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
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Thank you for the explanation, Javi! It makes much more sense to me now.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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