SUBJUNCTIVITIS!
The subjunctive
mood & when to use
it - & when not to!
Lynn Cobb
www.learn-aprender.com
This is pretty advanced stuff. If
you were studying with official
DELE courses, you wouldn’t be
taught about it until level B1,
which is the 3 rd level up, & then
only the present subjunctive & in
a simple way. The real nitty gritty
doesn’t come in until level B2, the
next level up, when you start to
learn the imperfect subjunctive.
It isn’t a tense, it’s a mood,
& is ‘available’ in more than
one tense. The others are the
‘indicative’ which is the one
we use the most, & certainly
learn first, & the ‘imperative’
which is for giving instructions.
When I was first learning to use
the subjunctive, I was told about
WEIRDO, & also given a list of more
than 60 ‘triggers’. I still find that
list useful, though most of them
can be bundled up as WEIRDOs.
I pass the list onto my students
now & I’ll add it at the end.