3.11  Hope and Dreams with the Imperfect Subjunctive 




The rules for imperfect subjunctive are the same as present subjunctive.  Just use WEIRDO.


The only difference between present subjunctive, you already know, and imperfect subjunctive is time.

The present subjunctive refers to actions in present
Imperfect Subjunctive refers to actions in the past. (sometimes call, ¨past subjunctive¨)

So, when the WEIRDO clause or the independent clause is in the preterit or the imperfect or refers to previous experience, you´ll use the imperfect subjunctive instead of present subjunctive.

You can also use the imperfect subjunctive to hope for the outlandish things to happen.

Take a look of a few examples,

1. Si fuera reina, viajaría por todo el mundo.
If I were queen, I would travel around the whole world.

2. Quería que vinieras a mis fiesta.
I wanted you to come to my party.

3. Ojalá que nevara en Coata Rica mañana.
I hope it snows in Costa Rica tomorrow.

4. Pasearíamos al perro más seguido si tuviéramos más tiempo.
We would walk the dog more ofthen, if we had the time.

       pasear condicional:  (infinitive + indicative imperfect endings: ía, ías, ía, íamos, íais, ían)              
                         pasería, paserías, pasería, pasearíamos, pasearíais, pasearían

5. Esperaba que se casarais.
I had hoped you would get married.

6. Ojañá que los extraterrestres me llamaran.
I wish the aliens would call me.

The imperfect or past subjunctive can be used in several ways as you can see in previous examples.  But let´s take a look at these endings first.

Now forming the imperfect subjective takes you few steps when you first learn it.  But once you get into practice you'll not even have to think about it.

a. you need to remember all the preterit conjugations because the imperfect subjunctive stem comes from the 3rd person plural form of the preterit.  Just remove the RON endings, then we get the stems for imperfect subjective.
                                
infinitive     3rd plural       imperfect subj. stem
ser              fueron          fue-                fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron
venir            vinieron        vinie-           vine, viniste, vino, vinimos, vinisteis, vinieron
nevar           nevaron        neva-
tener           tuvieron        tuvie-        tuve, tuviste, tuvo, tuvimos, tuvisteis, tuvieron
casarse       se casaron   se casa-
llamar          llamaron       llama-

b. all imperfect subjunctive verbs use the same endings, no matter the verbs end in AR, ER or IR.
yo           -ra              nostros    -ramos
tú          - ras            vosotros   -rais
el/ella/ud  -ra         ello/ella/Uds  - ran

c.  there are no irregulars in the imperfect subjunctive.  But you need to remember which verbs are irregular in preterit because that´s the stem we´ll be using.

Why take the R off from the preterit ending if you just need to put it back on them?

The endings you just learnt, ra, ras, ra, ramos, rais, ran are just one of the possible ending sets of the imperfect subjunctive, and they are the most widely used in Spain, Latin America, and South America.  There is another set of endings, however, that is more often used in written form in Spain.  Those endings are -se, ses, se, semos, seis, sen.

Now, we´re just going to practice with the first set since that is more common one.  But it is important to recognize the alternative endings, especially if you are reading a lot of written text which is written in Spain.

Examples:

1. Me alegraba de que me (tú) (comprar) un regalo para mi cumpleaños.

So, you see the independent clause is WEIRDO phrase, an emotion, which means that the dependent clause must be subjunctive.  And it´s also in the past tense, which means you need to use imperfect subjunctive instead of present subjunctive.

   Me alegraba de que me compraras un regalo para mi cumpleaños.
   I was happy that you bought me a gift for my birthday.

2. Si (ella) (vivir) en una hacienda, tendría un cerdo.
   Si viviera en una hacienda, tendría un cerdo.
   If she lived on a fram, she would own a pig.
                                                                             使用 imperfect subjunctive 的時機：
3. Queríamos que nuestros hijos (recibir) la mansión.     1. 過去可能發生的事。
                                            recibieran                     2. 如果 si ... (過去)
   We wanted our children to get the mansion.              3. 客氣的請求。
                                                                              4. 幾乎不可能發生的事或願望。
4. Si (yo) (tener) un ciclomotor, nunca manejaría mi coche.
               tuviera
    If I had a mopad, I would never drive my car.

5. Ojalá que (nosotros) (poder) volar como pájaros.
                                  pudiéramos
   I wish we can fly like birds.

6. Enseñarían inglés en Corea si (ellos) (hablar) coreano.
                                                          hablaran

In general, you will use imperfect subjunctive to speak about a hypothetical past, something that didn´t happen but could have happened.  This falls the category that is most obvious.

If the independent WEIRDO phrases are in the past, the the independent clause refers to something that happened in the past, then the subjunctive will also be in the past.

por ejemplo,

Agradezco que hicieras una tarta de queso.
I am glad that you made a cheese cake.

Quería que comprara unos  hipocampos para mi acuario.
I wanted him buy me some sea horses for my aquarium.

You can also use the imperfect subjunctive as you´ve seen in several examples as in if clause.

               if ... this, then... this.

 The verb following if would be in imperfect subjuncitve, and the following phrase we will use the conditional.

Si tuviera un millón dólares, compraría una casa en la playa.
If I had a million dollars, I would buy a house on the beach.

Haría una película si tuviera una cámara de vídeo.
I would make a movie, if I had a video camera.
 
 To make polite requests 

Quisiera las alcachofas con gambas.
I would like the artichokes with shrimps.
                      洋薊，球薊

¿Pudiera mostrármelo en el mapa?
Could you possibly show me on the map?

That last,  there is hope that something outrageous and most likely impossible may happen.  This is preceded by Ojalá in most cases.

Ojalá que ganara un millón dólares mañana.
I hope that I won a million dollars tomorrow.

Ojalá que cerdos volaran.
I wish pigs could fly.

Vocabulario:

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verb conjugation of imperfect subjective

關於 imperfect subjective 的動詞變化也可以用 -AR 與 -ER/-IR 兩組動詞詞尾變化來記，我買的幾本書都是用這個方法 e.g.

-AR
yo  -ara  (-ase)       nosotros  -áramos  (-ásemos)
tú  -aras (-ases)     vosotros   -arais     (-aseis)
él  -ara   (-ase)      ellos         -aran     (-asen)

-ER/-IR
yo  -iera  (iese)      nosotros  -iéramos (iésemos)     
tú  -ieras (ieses)     vosotros  -ierais    (ieseis)
él  -iera   (iese)       ellos       -ieran    (iesen)


        ------ or ------

preterit                         imperfect subjunctive
(3rd pers. plural)

habl  aron             habl   ara, aras, ara, áramos, aran
                           habl   ase, ases, ase, ásemos, asen

com  ieron             com   iera, ieras, iera, iérams, ierais, ieran
                           com   ises, ieses, iese, iésemos, ieseis, iesen

tuv  ieron              tuv   iera, ieras, iera, iérams, ierais, ieran
                           tuv   ises, ieses, iese, iésemos, ieseis, iesen