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Grammar Basics



Spanish 101A

Spanish 101B

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The form for the Subjunctive and Volition is the required 3-part formula.

Volition (willpower) means wanting, ordering, demanding, preferring, wishing or telling someone else to do something.

It is important to remember that the subject of the sentence will be wishing that someone else be doing something. The person doing the wishing will be separated from the wished-upon person by que [that].

Let's look at some examples:

Quiero que Keanu salga conmigo. I want Keanu to go out with me.
La profesora prefiere que los estudiantes escriban oraciones completas. The professor prefers that the students write complete sentences.
Esperamos que llegues temprano. We hope (that) you arrive early.
Sus padres mandan que estudie más este semestre. His parents demand that he study more this semester.

Notice that all of the examples contain the word que. While in English we can sometimes leave out the word "that" - in Spanish we never can. This is especially true when we are using the Subjunctive. In grammatical terms, the que divides the main clause from the subordinate clause, i.e. the Wisher/Hoper from what is Wished/Hoped for.

Since the actions in the second half of the sentences express what we want or expect from someone else, the verbs are conjugated using the Subjunctive mood. These actions haven't occured (and may never occur) and so are not handled by the Indicative.
As you can see from the Subjunctive verb highlighted in purple, the English equivalent (in green) varies.




Subject #1 (indicative verb of Volition)


This is the conjunction necessary to introduce the subjunctive clause

Subject #2 + verb in the subjunctive