The Imperfect or Past Subjunctive

There is only one set of endings in the imperfect subjunctive, regardless if the verb ends in -Ar ,-Ir or -Er.

Yo	Tú	Él, ella, usted	Nosotros*	Vosotros	Ellos, ellas, Uds.
ra	ras	ra	'ramos	rais	ran

* Note: the Nosotros form has an accent on the vowel that immediately precedes the "r" in "-ramos."

Past Subjunctive always ends in "-RAN" in third person plural as opposed to the Preterite which ends in "-RON".

We form the past subjunctive by taking the third person plural (Ellos, ellas, ustedes) form of the preterite past tense, and then adding the appropriate Imperfect subjunctive ending.

For example:

1) Tener	2) Tuvieron (the Preterite 3rd person plural)
3) We drop the "-ron" ending: tuvie-	4) We add one of the appropriate "-ra/ -ras/ -ra/ -'ramos/ -rais/ -ran" endings
5) we'll use -ra for this example:	Él tuviera

Examples of the Imperfect Subjunctive:

	Yo	Tú	Él, ella, usted	Nosotros	Ellos, ellas, Uds.
Hablar	hablara	hablaras	hablara	habláramos	hablaran
Comer	comiera	comieras	comiera	comiéramos	comieran
Vivir	viviera	vivieras	viviera	viviéramos	vivieran

Once we determine that we need to use the Subjunctive Mood, we use the Past (Imperfect) Subjunctive in a dependent clause when the main clause is in the past [which can be in the Preterite, Imperfect or the Conditional.]

	Past
Preterite	Le recomendé que él bebiera cuatro vasos de agua cada día.
Imperfect	Quería que él bebiera cuatro vasos de agua cada día.
Conditional	Querría que él bebiera cuatro vasos de agua cada día.
Past Perfect	Había querido que él bebiera cuatro vasos de agua cada día.

Remember that the word "que" introduces the dependent clause.

Also, we use the Present Subjunctive when the main clause is in the present:

	Present
Present	Quiero que él beba cuatro vasos de agua cada día
Present Perfect	He recomendado que él beba cuatro vasos de agua cada día
Future	Le voy a recomendar que él beba cuatro vasos de agua cada día
Future	Le recomendaré que él beba cuatro vasos de agua cada día

The Imperfect Subjunctive refers to events or ideas that did not, cannot and will not happen. The Present Subjunctive refers to things which MAY happen (likely or unlikely!)

Practice making the forms on the Web! Self-test on the web: finish the statements correctly!	Practice Si clauses with the imperfect subjunctive and the conditional More practice with Si clauses with a mini-quiz More Practice with Si clauses	Review the Conditional Review When to Use the Subjunctive! Back to the Verbs page!
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