Subjunctive Irregular Spanish Verb Conjugation

Learn the subjunctive irregulars, then come back and review with audio flash cards and the Lingo Dingo.

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The irregular subjunctives are the same as the Ud./Uds. irregular commands you already learned except here they are conjugated for each person. Like the commands, there are 3 sets of irregular verbs. It’s good to go through these verbs enough so that they become second nature and you don’t even have to think as you conjugate them. That’s the key to true fluency.

AR Subjunctive Endings

-a	-amos
-as	-áis
-a	-an

ER IR Subjunctive Endings

-e	-emos
-es	-éis
-e	-en

First we’ll look at a group of 18 irregulars. With 15 of the 18 of these, to get the stem, you take the “yo” present tense form, then put on the opposite endings. For example, the “yo” present tense form of “to have” is “tengo”, then you just take off the “o” and put on the opposite endings. Let’s take a look at the first 15 that follow this rule.

tener	tenga	venir	venga	valer	valga	These last 3 don’t follow the “yo” present tense rule. They are simply irregular. There’s no rule for them. You’ll simply have to memorize them.
hacer	haga	salir	salga	saber	sepa
poner	ponga	conducir	conduzca	ir	vaya
traducir	traduzca	decir	diga	ser	sea
traer	traiga	oír	oiga	ver	vea

Now if we use “tenga” as an example, and conjugate it out fully for each person, it would be “tenga, tengas, tenga, tengamos, tengáis, tengan”. All the other verbs are the same. The rule of taking the “yo” form of the present tense conjugation to find the stem also applies to this second group of irregular verbs. These are stem-changing verb that you learned back in present tense. Let’s take a look at these:

e-ie		o-ue
cerrar	cierre	be able (poder)	pueda

As you can see, “cerrar” become “cierre”. Let’s conjugate that out “cierre, cierres, cierre, cerremos, cerréis, and cierren”. Did you notice that the “nosotros” and “vosotros” forms didn’t use the stem changes. Remember, “nosotros” likes to stay regular as much as possible. The only exception is “preferir” which becomes “prefiramos”.

The same is true with o to ue. Let’s conjugate out poder so you can see how it works: “pueda, puedas, pueda, podamos, podáis, puedan”. Again, the “nosotros” likes to stay regular and not use the stem changes. The only exceptions are “muramos” and “durmamos”.

e-ie		o-ue
close (cerrar)	cierre	remember (recordar)	recuerde
feel (sentir)	sienta	be able (poder)	pueda
start (empezar)	empiece	count (contar)	cuente
lose (perder)	pierda	show (mostrar)	muestre
prefer (preferir)	prefiera	eat lunch (almorzar)	almuerce
require (requerir)	requiera	find (encontrar)	encuentre
start (comenzar)	comience	move (mover)	mueva
think (pensar)	piense	play (jugar)	juegue
understand (entender)	entienda	return an item (devolver)	devuelva
want (querer)	quiera	return (volver)	vuelva
recommend (recomendar)	recomiende	sleep (dormir)	duerma
		die (morir)	muera

Now let’s look at e to i stem changers and i to y stem changers. With these verbs, the nosotros follows the pattern.

e-i		i-y
ask for (pedir)	pida	destroy (destruir)	destruya
follow (seguir)	siga	include (incluir)	incluya
get (conseguir)	consiga
repeat (repetir)	repita
serve (server)	sirva

Let’s look at two of them so you can see what I mean. First we’ll look at the verb pedir: “pida, pidas, pida, pidamos, pidáis, pidan”.

Now we’ll look at destruir: “destruya, destruyas, destruya, destruyamos, destruyáis, destruyan”.

Now we’ll look at the third and final group of irregulars. Like the commands, they are only irregular in spelling. Please see the “commands” section for more on exactly why we do the spelling changes. The spelling changes are consistent through each person. For example, let’s look at the subjunctive conjugation of “pagar” – pague, pagues, pague, paguemos, paguéis, paguen. Here’s a chart of irregulars to look at and become familiar with.

Spelling Changes

-gar to gue		-car to que		-zar to ce
pagar	pague	practicar	practique	empezar	empiece
entregar	entregue	buscar	busque	comenzar	comience
pegar	pegue	explicar	explique	almorzar	almuerce
llegar	llegue	sacar	saque
jugar	juegue	tocar	toque

Finally, there are 2 verbs that are irregular in the fact that they need accents. The verb “dar” and “estar” and notice where the accents go.

Dar – to give

dé	demos
des	deis
dé	den

Estar – to be

esté	estemos
estés	estéis
esté	estén

You’ve now learned the all the subjunctive irregulars. There are a lot here and we recommend going through this lesson a few times to become really familiar with them.

Spanish Review

he doubts that you (Sra. Palma) have	duda que tenga
we want him to do it	queremos que lo haga
you (Sr. Bustos) like her to bring	le gusta que traiga
it's important that I translate	es importante que traduzca
they need us to bring	necesitan que traigamos
you (Anna) prefer that they come	prefieres que vengan
it's hard for you (Javier) to drive	es dificil que conduzcas
he hopes you all will say	espera que digan
he doesn't believe I value	no cree que valga
it's necessary for you to know (Sra. Lagos)	es necesario que sepa
you ask me to go	pide que vaya
you all insist that she be	insisten que sea
without us seeing	sin que veamos
it's possible they'll close	es posible que cierren
I don't think we can	no creo que podamos
so that she feels	para que sienta
before you all begin	antes que empiecen
hopefully we'll eat lunch	ojalá que almorcemos
as long as you (Sr. Ruiz) find	con tal de que encuentre
you doubt that he'll move	duda que mueva
you all want us to play	quieren que juguemos
they like you (Sra. Jiménez) to ask	les gusta que pida
it's important that you all follow	es importante que sigan
I need them to get/obtain	necesito que consigan
she prefers you (Nora) to repeat	prefiere que repitas
you (Dario) tell me to sirve	me dices que sirva
its hard for her to destroy	es dificil que destruya
he asks you (Lidia) to arrive	pide que llegues
hopefully he'll play	ojala que juegue
without her practicing	sin que practique
it's possible that I'll search for	es posible que busque
they don't think that we explain	no piensan que expliquemos
before you all touch	antes de que toquen