When Should You Learn The Subjunctive?  Now!!
Channel: ShareLingo
Date: 2023-06-02

No matter what your current Spanish level is, you should be learning more of the Subjunctive…

because Spanish speakers use it every day.  It’s how they talk.  It’s part of their “normal” communication.

If you don’t know it, even if you are an intermediate or advanced learner, your Spanish probably sounds like you’re a kid in elementary school. You’re not going to speak with your heart, or with emotion, or more importantly, with respect .. you won’t express yourself like you do in English.
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But when you do know the subjunctive, you'll do all of that, and MORE - because you’ll UNDERSTAND more spoken Spanish.  If you listen to any Spanish - on tv, movies, people talking in public - you’ll hear the subjunctive being used, but now you’ll understand it and you’ll understand what people are saying.

Here’s the problem.
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The ORDER in which traditional books, schools, and aps, teach Spanish is messed up.  They teach Spanish like this:
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Notice that the subjunctive is not covered until step 10 in this list !!
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This means many people can take a year or or maybe even TWO before they start learning the Subjunctive.
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Do you want it to be another year before you can say “Have a nice day - Que tengas un buen día,   or something like   “I hope that you come to the party -  Espero que vengas a la fiesta?  

So, why DO they teach it in this order?

They’ve been doing it the same way for EVER.   Really - here’s a book from my bookshelf, first published in 1939! that breaks it down exactly this way.

 I guess it’s a case of  “We’ve always done it that way - so why change it?” 
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Well at ShareLingo we help you to CHANGE this order,   so you can speak Spanish more naturally, and a lot sooner. 
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Look - If you can learn colors - rojo, azul, blanco - then you can learn a phrase.  It’s as simple as that.  And if you know some phrases, you can use them and recognize them.

Take a sentence like “Have a nice day.”  Que tengas un buen día.   
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Tengas is an example of the Subjunctive.   
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So if you don’t learn the subjunctive until after all of the other tenses (and remember, there are a lot of them) you delay your progress.
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And that’s WRONG - because it delays your confidence speaking, and it delays your ability to understand what Spanish speakers are saying.  Whether that’s in actual conversations - or watching TV,  or movies, or listening to audio books, or whatever you’re doing to improve your listening skills.  
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Spanish speakers use the Subjunctive tense all day every day - for even simple statements like “I hope you have a nice weekend.”   Espero que tengas un buen fin de semana.
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Not knowing the subjunctive, well that makes it harder to listen, harder to understand, harder to communicate.  You sound like a child, and your speech lacks emotion and respect.  
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Here’s when you SHOULD be curious about using the Subjunctive.  
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Instead of waiting until the end of the Intermediate level before you learn ANY subjunctive, you need to sprinkle learning the subjunctive in all along the learning path.
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If you’re at the basic level, studying the present tense, then also study the present subjunctive.
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If you’re at the beginning of the intermediate level, studying the past or imperfect?  Also study the imperfect subjunctive.  

You get the picture.
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when you learn the subjunctive right along with the other tenses, you:
Benefits:

Speak with more respect
Speak like native speakers, not a child
Understand more of what Spanish speakers are saying
Accelerate your learning
Expand your vocabulary
Improve your understanding
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AND: it makes Spanish
It’s easier to learn
and easier to remember
And instead of being so daunting - something we dread and put off till later - it’s fun to use and we find out how useful it is.

Since you’re watching this, my guess is that you’re already studying the other tenses, and that means you have an opportunity - and you need to catch up on your subjunctive.  
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Your very next priority should be to catch up.  Master the subjunctive tenses that coincide with what you’ve learned up to this point in your Spanish journey.   
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And then you need to make sure that you add the subjunctive version of the next tense you learn to your planned studies and practice sessions.

If you want the easy button for how to learn the subjunctive, click the button 
for a free training video that will get you started.

I’m James from the ShareLingo Project

Ciao for now.

Visit https://www.ShareLingo.com or www.iShareLingo.com and join our community of English and Spanish speakers.

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