English-Spanish Helpful Handouts
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Verbs Of Desire And Volition- The Use Of The Present Subjunctive In Noun Clauses The subjunctive mood is used to express events or states that are not a part of the speaker’s reality or experience. It is used to speak about things that are unreal, uncertain, or indefinite. One way that the present subjunctive is used is to express the speaker’s desire or volition, that is, something that the speaker wants or wills. What one desires or wills is not real or certain. It may or may not happen. It is indefinite. Verbs of desire and volition are used in sentences with the present subjunctive. This kind of sentence has an independent clause and a dependent noun clause. A dependent noun clause is a group of words that function as the subject or the object of the verb in the independent clause. Independent noun clauses in Spanish are introduced by the conjunction que. There are 2 differences between the independent and dependent clauses. The first difference is the subject in the independent clause is different from the subject in the dependent clause. The second difference is the independent clause has a verb in the indicative mood while the dependent clause has a verb in the present subjunctive mood. Bill quiere que Ann deje de fumar. (Bill wants Ann to stop smoking.)
Independent Clause – Indicative Mood bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb Subject – Bill Subject
Dependent Noun Clause – Subjunctive Mood Subject - Ann que
Bill quiere
Ann deje de fumar.
Here is a list of some verbs that express desire and volition. permitir – to permit insistir en – to insist on preferir – to prefer exigir – to demand rogar – to pray sugerir – to suggest
Los doctores no me permiten que fume. Insistimos en que vaya al hospital . Prefiere que su madre viva en España.
The doctors don’t permit me to smoke. We insist that you go to the hospital.
Les exigen que los niños regresen a las cinco de la tarde. Le rogamos que ella esté bien.
He prefers that his mother live in Spain. They demand that the children return at 5:00 p.m. We pray that she is well.
Le sugieren a Brenda que compre el coche rojo.
They suggest that Brenda buy the red car.
Here are some more verbs of desire and volition. advertir – to warn decidir – to decide impedir – to prevent prohibir – to prohibit
alentar – to encourage dejar – to allow inducir – to induce proponerse – to propose
convencer – to convince desear - to desire mandar– to order requerir – to require
Free handout from http://sites.google.com/site/englishspanishhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson. Photos: www.morguefile.com.
decir – to tell, say disponer – to stipulate necesitar – to need pedir – to ask
English-Spanish Helpful Handouts
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Verbs Of Desire And Volition- The Use Of The Present Subjunctive In Noun Clauses There are some verbs that can be used in both the indicative and subjunctive moods. Decir is followed by a noun clause in the indicative mood when reporting what someone says. Bill le dice que Joanna va al cine cada fin de semana. (Bill says that Joanna goes to the movies every weekend.) Decir is followed by a noun clause in the subjunctive mood when telling someone to do something. Bill le dice a Joanna que lo busque en el cine a las cuatro de la tarde el sábado. (Bill tells Joanna to meet him at the movies at 4:00p.m. on Saturday.)
Some verbs can be followed by the infinitve form of another verb or by a dependent noun clause in the subjunctive without a change in meaning. Les sugiero tomar el tren. Les sugiero que tomen el tren. (I suggest that they take the train.) Here are some other verbs that can be followed by either the infinitive or subjunctive without a change in meaning. dejar – to allow rogar – to request, beg
impedir – to prevent sugerir – to suggest
mandar – to order
permtir – to permit
prohibir – to forbid
The verbs in the box above are always used with an indirect object pronoun when they are followed by the infinitive. When they are followed by the subjunctive in a noun clause, the use of the indirect object pronoun is optional.
Practice. Bill wills and desires many things. Use your imagination to create a noun clause in the subjunctive mood for each sentence. Bill me permite que yo _________________________________________________________ Bill insiste en que tú ___________________________________________________________ Bill prefiere que él ____________________________________________________________
Bill
Bill le exige que ella _______________________________________________________________________________ Bill nos ruega que nosotros _________________________________________________________________________ Bill les sugiere que ustedes __________________________________________________________________________ Bill les dice que ellos _______________________________________________________________________________ Free handout from http://sites.google.com/site/englishspanishhelpfulhandouts. Written by S. Watson. Photos: www.morguefile.com.