Past Subjunctive AR Spanish Verb Conjugation

Now we'll take a look at past subjunctive AR Spanish verb conjugation. Remember to practice with our free Spanish flashcards and language review games!

To form the past subjunctive for AR verbs, you take the root of the verb and add the following endings:

Using the chart, let’s see if you can guess how these would work. Are you ready?

Go ahead and repeat the endings one more time:

Now, one thing you need to know is that the past subjunctive also has an alternate set of endings and here they are:

Honestly, these endings are rarely used and if you don’t become fluent in them, you’ll still be able to communicate perfectly. In fact, many Americans don’t ever become really fluent at past subjunctive period. So, by going through these lessons and practicing, you’ll be a step ahead of the rest. If you’re a real overachiever, you may want to look at the alternate endings.

Here’s an example of a verbs conjugated with the alternate endings.

Now, before we finish this lesson, there’s one more item we need to hit. When you use “if” to trigger the Past Subjunctive, you generally use a “would” or “conditional” phrase to compliment it.

Let’s look at a few examples:

If I won a million dollars, I would by a nice car.
As I give you the Spanish equivalent, notice how I used the “if” and “past subjunctive” as well as the “would” clause.
Si ganara un millón de dólares, compraría un buen carro.

Let’s look at a couple more.

If I were retired, I would travel around the world.
Si fuera jubilado, viajaría por todo el mundo.

And finally:

If I were president, I would lower taxes.
Si fuera presidente, bajaría los impuestos.

Feel free to repeat this lesson as many times as you’d like, then move on to the other lessons to practice more.

Spanish Review