The subjunctive
mood in English is nearly non-existent except for the few phrases
such as" If I were you; I wish I were you", and where the
word " were" is substituted for the word "was"
or "there you be" gives way to "there you are".
The subjunctive mood is then widely used in other languages, cited
hereinafter, and their employment determines the ability of an individual
to have a good and proper command of the language.
In particular
the Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and the Russian
languages, to cite a few, emphasize the employment of subjunctive
mood from the time the children start to become literate.
The English speakers
no longer use the subjunctive mood except for the few phrases I mentioned
above, and the few faithful followers seem to be a dying breed. This
is because most English speakers do not think subjunctively or they
are no longer preoccupied primarily with the uncertainty of events,
and neither do they make excessive wishes or make conjectures in life.
And if they do, they have not shown them in unique words as in other
foreign languages I just mentioned. It should be noted that in old
English, the English of Beowulf and Alfred the Great, which was Germanic,
and Chaucer, which was mixed with French, the use of the subjunctive
mood was common place.
There are three
tenses for the subjunctive mood in Spanish as in other languages.
They are present, past, and future.
Let us cite a
common verb in Spanish and conjugate it on all the tenses. The word
here is SER or to be:
Subjuntivo Presente
or Presente Subjuntivo: (Please remember again that Latin-American
Spanish speakers do not use the word vosotros.)
YO SEA, TU SEAS,
EL/ELLA/USTED SEA
NOSOTROS SEAMOS, VOSOTROS SEAIS,
ELLOS/ELLAS/USTEDES SEAN
Subjuntivo Pasado
or Pasado Subjuntivo: The conjugation takes two forms.
FUERA, FUERAS,
FUERA, FUERAMOS, FUERAIS, FUERAN
Or
FUESE, FUESES, FUESE, FUESEMOS,
FUESEIS, FUESEN
(The second form is not as popular as the first one.)
Subjuntivo Futuro
or Futuro Subjuntivo:
FUERE, FUERES,
FUERE, FUEREMOS, FUEREIS, FUEREN
(Please note that only the speakers from Spain employ the future subjunctive
tense. Don Miguel de Cervantes employed the subjunctive mood widely
in his novel, Don Quijote de la Mancha ).
Also there are
perfect tenses (tiempos compuestos) in the subjunctive mood and they
are present, past, and future.. For the present perfect we have the
word HABER plus the past participle. Hence we say HAYA, HAYAS, HAYA,
HAYAMOS, HAYAIS, HAYAN SIDO (Have/has been). SIDO is the past participle
of the verb ser (to be).
For the past perfect
tense in subjunctive, they are:
HUBIERA/HUBIESE, HUBIERAS/
HUBIESES, HUBIERA/HUBIESE, HUBIERAMOS/HUBIESEMOS, HUBIERAN/
HUBIESEN SIDO (Had been).
For future perfect
tense in subjunctive, they are:
HUBIERE, HUBIERES, HUBIERE,
HUBIEREMOS, HUBIEREIS, HUBIEREN SIDO (will have been).
The subjunctive
mood is used when:
(1) There is expression
of despair, an exclamation such as:
Que
te VAYA bien! or May fortune bode well for you.
Ay de mi! que buena suerte TENGA yo!
or Oh! How fortunate am I.
The words VAYA
and TENGA are present subjunctive forms in the third person singular
of the verbs IR (to go) and TENER (to have).
No
me siento feliz or se me entristece que te HAYAS olvidado de mi. I
am not
happy or I am saddened that you have
forgotten me. See above for the meaning
of the word HAYAS. Olvidado is the past participle of the verb olvidar
(to forget).
(2) A wish, a desire, etc.
Quiero que la
AYUDES or I want you to help her. AYUDES is the present subjunctive
in the second person singular of the verb AYUDAR (to help).
Ojala! que ANOCHEZCA
mas tarde! I wish that the evening comes later.
ANOCHEZCA is the present subjunctive from the verb ANOCHECER (to darken
or become dark), which is an impersonal verb used only in the third
person singular.
QUISIERA que SUPIERA
mucho a mis quehaceres. This is a double
employment of the subjunctive mood in the past tense. It means I wish
that
you (the Spanish formal you, in the third person singular) knew a
lot of of what I've
been through. The word QUISIERA is from the verb QUERER (to like).
SUPIERA
is from the verb SABER (to know).
(3) A conjecture.
Let me cite here a passage from Jose Rizal's ULTIMO ADIOS.
Dr. Rizal had employed lots of subjunctive mood in this poem.
Y
FUERA mas brillante, mas fresca, mas florida,
Tambien por ti la DIERA, la DIERA
por tu bien.
The verbs here
in the past subjunctive are SER (FUERA) and DAR (DIERA) which mean
to be and give, respectively. My free translation goes like this:
If only my life were more brilliant, fresher, and more elegant, I
would also give it to you (las Filipinas) for your well-being.
(Note that the
English translation is also in the subjunctive mood -if my life WERE)
For
the future subjunctive mood, Rizal did employ it in his Ultimo Adios:
Si
sobre mi sepulcro, VIERES brotar un dia.
(My
free translation) If one day you witness something growing over my
grave. The word VIERES is
the future subjunctive in second person singular of
the verb VER (to see).
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For want of space I am writing the second part of the Cuarta Leccion
in the March, 2004 issue of Sanrokan magazine.
Below are
pictures of me when I traveled to Colombia and Uruguay in the late
Summer of 1970. I was on my way back to Minnesota after 5 months of
an unforgettable world tour.
