The Complete Guide to Subjunctive vs Indicative in Spanish

Imagine trying to express your hopes, doubts, or certainties in Spanish, only to realize that the way you say it changes everything. That’s where the subjunctive and indicative moods come into play. 

These two moods can completely alter the meaning of a sentence, depending on what you’re trying to convey. Let’s dive into the fascinating world of Spanish moods and unravel when to use the subjunctive versus the indicative, so your meaning is always crystal clear.

Let’s get started! 

What Is The Difference Between Indicative And Subjunctive Mood?

In short, the indicative deals with what is, while the subjunctive deals with what might be.

The difference between the indicative and subjunctive moods in Spanish lies in how each is used to express different kinds of statements or emotions. Let’s now talk about the moods in Spanish so you can better get into context!

Moods in Spanish

The first thing to note is that there are three moods in Spanish. You have the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive. Typically, you learn them in that order, too.

For today’s purpose, we’ll be focusing on just Subjunctive and Indicative moods in the present tense. Although you can also use these moods in the past tense, we’ll keep things simple to avoid any confusion. 

Let’s take a look at each of these Spanish moods and understand them one by one.

Indicative in Spanish

The indicative mood is the easiest type, so we’ll start here. Simply put, the indicative mood is used to talk about facts and certainty. In other words – statements you are certain about. Using the indicative is much easier because there are fewer restrictions and, in general, it’s the first mood you’ll learn in any language. 

In case there is any confusion – the indicative is the mood for EVERY verb conjugation you’ve probably already learned. 

The present tense, the progressive, the imperfect, the preterite, etc. – all of those tenses can be expressed through the indicative. 

Here’s a quick conjugation chart to review the conjugation for verbs in the indicative present tense:

Indicative Mood Conjugation Chart

In other words – you can think of the indicative mood in Spanish as the “normal” verb conjugations. You’ll use them to express facts you believe to be true. For example:

• José corre todos los días – José runs every day.  
• Los niños hablan mucho – Children talk a lot. 
• María es muy lista – María is very smart
• Trabajo en una empresa de marketing – I work in a marketing company
• La semana que viene es pascua – Next week is Easter

As you can see – pretty simple. All of these sentences state a fact or something the speaker is certain about. Now let’s move on to the subjunctive and see how this can change. 

Subjunctive in Spanish

The subjunctive is used to talk about emotions, desires, uncertainty – anything that isn’t truly a fact. Now, we won’t get too philosophical, but a general guideline is that the subjunctive mood helps us talk about subjective things.

Conceptually, it can be a bit tricky for English speakers to understand how to use the subjunctive mood. This is mostly because it is very rarely used in English, so we find it complicated to understand. 

Here are a few examples:

• Dudo que tenga mucho tiempo – I doubt he/she has a lot of time. 

• Es importante que estudies mucho – It’s important you study a lot. 
• Que bien que hayas venido  – How nice of you to come

To use the subjunctive, each of these sentences has a few things in common. 

• A conceptual difference
• A subject change
• A connector

In most cases, the connector is que – so that’s easy to remember. Now let’s go over the two other elements that we MUST have in order to use the subjunctive.

Subjunctive Mood Conjugation Chart

As you can see, you can kind of think of the subjunctive as the “opposite” of the indicative. Both in conceptual terms and in regards to conjugation.

It’s not a perfect explanation, but in general AR verbs take the ER indicative conjugation, while ER and IR verbs take the AR conjugation. While not a completely fool-proof rule, it can be a helpful guide when you’re working on memorizing.

Now let’s move on to the juicy stuff – how to use the subjunctive vs indicative mood in Spanish. 

WEIRDO: When To Use The Subjunctive

The conceptual difference, the change in the sentence that makes it separate from the indicative – is fundamental. Usually, you use the indicative to express a clear factual statement. However, with the subjunctive, we’ll be expressing an idea that isn’t so concrete. 

There are lots of different meanings you could express with the subjunctive, but we often categorize them as WEIRDO clauses. Hopefully, this strange acronym helps you memorize the different uses!

W – Wishes

• Espero que tengas un buen día – I hope you have a nice day
• Quiere que hablemos más bajito – He wants us to speak a little quieter

E – Emotions

• Me frustra que cueste tanto tiempo – It’s frustrating that it takes so long. 

I – Impersonal expressions

• Es bueno que comas bien – It’s good that you eat well
• Es horrible que gobiernen  – It’s horrible that they’re in the government

R – Recommendations 

• Recomiendo que vayas al médico – I recommend you go to the doctor 
• Sugiere que comamos la paella – He suggests we eat paella

D – Doubt / Denial

• Dudo que estén cerrados – I doubt they’re closed 
• No creo que tengan comida vegetariana  – I don’t think they have vegetarian food

O – Ojalá (hopefully)

• Ojalá no llueve más – Hopefully it doesn’t rain anymore
• Ojalá tengas tiempo – Hopefully you have time.

Subject Change

The second important element to recognize when you use the subjunctive vs the indicative is the subject change. In Spanish, when we use the subjunctive – it almost always is going to trigger a change of subject in the second clause. 

You can look back at the previous examples and notice that ALL the sentences have two subjects. The first verb is conjugated in one subject (yo, tú, él, etc.), while the verb in the subjunctive is in a different one.

For example:

• Espero que lo pases bien – I hope you have a good time 

In order to trigger the subjunctive in these types of clauses, we’ll need a change of subject AND a connector (like que). 

¡Qué bien que lo hayas acabado!

You’re finished! To be fair, the subjunctive is a difficult topic that will probably take you a while to understand. So just remember that you’ll need some time for it to click.

But the best way to get it under control is to practice! So go ahead and sign up for a free private class or a 7-day free trial of our group classes to practice what you learned!