The Past Subjunctive--Formation

First of all, let's remember how we formed the present subjunctive: basically, we started with the first person singular of the present (hablo, como, vivo, digo, conozco), took off the 'o', and then added the 'opposite endings'.

Now with the past subjunctive, we're going to go through a similar process, but now, instead of beginning with the first person singular of the present, we use the third person plural of the preterite (simple past). So now our starting point will be, for example: hablaron, comieron, vivieron, dijeron, conocieron.

But this time we are going to remove -ron, so we end up with the following stems: habla-, comie-, vivie-, dije-, conocie-).

Up to this point in Spanish we've only had to learn one set of verb endings; now we get to learn two sets! And the funny thing is that there is no difference in meaning between one and the other! But let's also look on the positive side of things: they are the same endings whether we are dealing with -ar, -er, or -ir verbs. Here they are:

-ra       -ramos
-ras      -rais
-ra       -ran

-se       -semos
-ses      -seis
-se       -sen

So the verbs cited above will look like this:

hablar
hablara       habláramos
hablaras      hablarais
hablara       hablaran

hablase       hablásemos
hablases      hablaseis
hablase       hablasen

comer
comiera       comiéramos
comieras      comierais
comiera       comieran

comiese       comiésemos
comieses      comieseis
comiese       comiesen


vivir
viviera       viviéramos
vivieras      vivierais
viviera       vivieran

viviese       viviésemos
vivieses      vivieseis
viviese       viviesen

decir
dijera       dijéramos
dijeras      dijerais
dijera       dijeran

dijese       dijésemos
dijeses      dijeseis
dijese       dijesen

conocer
conociera    conociéramos
conocieras   conocierais
conociera    conocieran

conociese    conociésemos
conocieses   conocieseis
conociese    conociesen


Related Topics

The Present Subjunctive--Formation
The Subjunctive--Usage
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