Subjunctive by trigger

This handbook skips most of the subjunctive. It cannot skip all of it, because Brazilians use two subjunctive forms in ordinary daily speech and there is no way around them.

The approach here is triggers, not paradigms. You do not learn "the subjunctive mood." You learn a short list of words that force a special verb form, and the forms of ten verbs. That is enough.

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Grammar

1. Two subjunctives to care about

The future subjunctive is the one you will need most. It is also, conveniently, the easier one.

2. Future subjunctive — how to build it

Take the eles form of the past tense (ch. 14), drop -am.

For regular verbs the result is identical to the infinitive. falar → falar. comer → comer. chegar → chegar. So for three quarters of all verbs, there is nothing to learn — you just use the dictionary form.

Only the irregular verbs produce something new, and there are ten of them. The essential four: for, tiver, estiver, puder.

Note the collision: ver → vir in the future subjunctive, which is identical to the infinitive of vir (to come). And vir → vier. Context sorts it out.

Endings for the other persons: add -em for vocês/eles (falarem, forem, tiverem). You mostly need the singular.

3. The future subjunctive triggers

The rule: if quando or se points at the future, use this form. If quando points at the past, use the ordinary past tense.

English uses the present in both cases (when I arrive), which is why this trips people up.

4. Present subjunctive — how to build it

Take the eu form of the present, drop the -o, and swap the vowel. -ar verbs take -e. -er and -ir verbs take -a.

Five verbs do not follow this and must be memorised:

5. The present subjunctive triggers

Note the asymmetry: Eu acho que takes the ordinary indicative (Eu acho que **é** caro), but Eu não acho que takes the subjunctive (Eu não acho que **seja** caro). In practice, Brazilians often use the indicative even after the negative. Do not lose sleep over it.

6. What you can safely skip

• The imperfect subjunctive (fosse, tivesse) — used in hypotheticals: Se eu tivesse dinheiro… (if I had money). Recognise it; you can avoid producing it by rephrasing.
• All the compound subjunctive tenses.
• The full trigger list, which runs to dozens of expressions.

7. The realistic minimum

If you learn only this much, you will be fine:

Eight phrases. That is the working subjunctive.

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Examples

Future subjunctive with quando

Future subjunctive with se

Regular verbs — nothing new to learn

Notice these look exactly like the infinitive.

Present subjunctive

Past quando — ordinary past, no subjunctive

Contrast these with the future examples above.

The rephrase escape hatch

If a subjunctive form escapes you, restructure. These pairs mean roughly the same thing:

This is a legitimate strategy, not cheating. But quando and se about the future are common enough that you should learn for, tiver, estiver, puder, and quiser properly.

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What to take from this chapter

1. Learn triggers, not the mood. quando, se, espero que, talvez.
2. Future subjunctive = eles past tense minus -am. For regular verbs, that is just the infinitive.
3. Memorise five: for, tiver, estiver, puder, quiser.
4. Present subjunctive: memorise seja, esteja, vá, dê, saiba.
5. quando about the future takes the subjunctive; quando about the past takes the ordinary past.
6. When stuck, rephrase.