ONE VITAL NOTE ABOUT SUBJUNCTIVE
There is one thing that is very important for you to "get" this semester–one major structural difference between English and Spanish.
The subjunctive used to be common in English. If you read Shakespeare, for example, you’ll find lots of examples like "if beauty have a soul…" "Would that he be master…" etc. Even in modern English it’s not completely dead; think about the difference between "It’s good that you are here on time" and "It’s important that you be here on time." However, the English subjunctive never had its own, unique form of the verb. "Have" and "be" are both forms that have several other uses, so sometimes the subjunctive and the indicative were identical.
For this and other reasons, the subjunctive has mostly disappeared from modern English, and English has had to come up with other structures. The most common way of avoiding subjunctive is just to use the indicative. The second most common way is to use a noun or pronoun plus an infinitive (nobody really knows what to call this, but one term is "personal infinitive.") For example:
Mom wants Johnny to be a doctor
. [Here the noun "Johnny" is directly followed by the infinitive "to be."]She tells him to study
. ["Him" is an object pronoun, again followed directly by an infinitive, "to study."]Sometimes we stick in the preposition "for":
It’s important for him to work hard.
Mom only wants for him to be happy
.
Notice that most of these could be expressed with a dependent clause with "that," although they might sound strange and archaic:
Mom wants that Johnny be a doctor.
It’s important that he work hard.
She only wants that he be happy.
In Spanish, the "noun+infinitive" structure does not exist!!!! Any of these sentences would have to be done the second way in Spanish:
Mamá quiere que Juanito sea médico.
Ella dice qué [él] estudie.
Es importante que trabaje mucho.
Mamá sólo quiere que [él] sea feliz.
Anytime you find yourself writing a noun and an infinitive together, STOP and think about whether you really need a dependent clause.
For practice, translate the following:
Hi, Mom!
I just want you to know that I’m going to Grandma’s house. I know you always tell me not to go through the woods [por el bosque], but I have to do it in order [para] for me to get there on time. It’s very important for Grandma to have her medicine! I don’t think it’s likely [probable] that the wolf [lobo] is there.
XXOO,
Little Red Riding Hood