When we native English speakers learn a foreign language, we can get confused when it comes to subjunctives. One of the reasons for this is that our past forms of the subjunctive, for example, the “were” in the if clause “if I were you, I wouldn’t do that”, for all English verbs other than “to be” – they are exactly the same as the forms of the simple past.
Therefore, we have:
“I went to the store yesterday.” (“went” is the past simple of “to go”)
“If I went to the store right now, I would buy a book.” (Here, “went” is not the past tense, but the subjunctive form of “to go.” Obviously, this sentence is not in the past tense, since the speaker is talking about going to the store right now, not having gone. in the past.)
Another example:
“I spoke to your brother the other day.” (past single)
“If I spoke to your brother tomorrow, I would tell him what a great guy he is.” “Talked” is subjunctive, and here it refers to a future tense: there is no “future subjunctive” form in English, so we use the same form as we would if we were referring to the present. Thus, we say:
Referring to the present: “If I went to New York now,…”
Referring to the future: “If I went to New York tomorrow,…”
In both examples, the subjunctive “went” is used. It’s no wonder some people get confused about the subjunctive in English or subjunctives in general when learning a language. After all, as these examples show, we use the past tense form (went) to express a hypothetical situation (subjunctive) that happens in the present or future!
But precisely these forms of the past tense are used in English as subjunctive forms in if clauses that refer to the present or the future.
Spanish leaves no room for confusion in such cases, as it has a complete set of different subjunctive forms for speculative sentences. Examples:
“I ran away to the store yesterday.” (I went to the store yesterday: past simple)
“If I went to the store right now…”
In English, we would use “went” in both situations, and for all people: I went, you went, you went, you went, you went, you went; if I went, if you went, etc.
In Spanish, however, one must distinguish between the past simple and the subjunctive, and in addition, different forms must be used for different people:
Past simple: I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, you were, they were
Subjunctive: I was, you were, he/she was, we were, you were, they know
To make matters worse, there is a second set of subjunctive forms that are used in exactly the same contexts as the first:
Subjunctive: I was, you were, he/she was, we were, you were, they were
Somehow, it doesn’t seem fair, does it? That is to say, when a Spanish speaker wants to learn English, he only has to learn the past tense of a verb – a single word, “went”, for example – and then he can use it for all the people in the past. tense, and also for all persons of the subjunctive in if clauses. We, on the other hand, when we learn Spanish, are forced to learn 18 verb forms instead of just one!
Both German and French are a bit more forgiving, since they don’t have as many forms as Spanish. However, they also present us with quite a few shapes to memorize.
In Part 4 of this series, we’ll take a brief look at how French and German treat if clauses that require the subjunctive.