El subjuntivo: formas

The subjunctive is not a verb tense; it's called a "mood". In fact, the subjunctive has various tenses and forms, though fewer than the indicative mood. The 4 subjunctive tenses that we will cover are the present subjunctive, the imperfect (past) subjunctive, the present perfect subjunctive, and the pluperfect subjunctive.

Present Subjunctive: Regular -AR verbs
DESCANSAR: to rest
...que yo descanse	...que nosotros descansemos
...que tú descanses	(que vosotros descanséis)
...que él/ella/Ud. descanse	...que ellos/ellas/Uds. descansen

Present Subjunctive: Regular -ER and -IR verbs
COMPRENDER: to understand
...que yo comprenda	...que nosotros comprendamos
...que tú comprendas	(...que vosotros comprendáis)
...que él/ella/Ud. comprenda	...que ellos/ellas/Uds. comprendan

Notes

1. The verbs that have irregular "yo" forms in the present indicative are also irregular in the present subjunctive. The rule for most verbs is to drop the -o of the "yo" form; what is left is the stem that the subjunctive endings are added to. For the verb hacer, the "yo" form is hago, so the stem is hag-:

... que yo haga	... que nosotros hagamos
... que tú hagas	(... que vosotros hagáis)
... que ella haga	... que ellos hagan

2. The following six verbs do not follow the rule given in 1. Their forms in the present subjunctive are given below. You can remember these verbs using the acronym DISHES.

dar (doy)	dé, des, dé, demos, den
ir (voy)	vaya, vayas, vaya, vayamos, vayan
saber (sé)	sepa, sepas, sepa, sepamos, sepan
haber (hay)	haya
estar (estoy)	esté, estés, esté, estemos, estén
ser (soy)	sea, seas, sea, seamos, sean

3. The verbs that have stem changes in the present indicative have the same stem changes in the present subjunctive. However, the stem changing verbs ending in -ir, including pedir, mentir, seguir, sentir, vestir, dormir, and many others, have slightly irregular nosotros forms. Instead of having the regular stem vowel in the nosotros form, the verbs with an e stem vowel have an i, and the verbs with an o stem vowel have a u. Here are the examples of sentir and dormir:

sienta	sintamos	duerma	durmamos
sientas	(sintáis)	duermas	(durmáis)
sienta	sientan	duerma	duerman

4. There are also verbs that have spelling changes in the present subjunctive. Two examples are the verb sacar, which is conjugated saque, saques, saque, etc, and the verb comenzar, which is conjugated comience, comiences, comience, etc. Recall that these spelling changes are necessary to accurately represent the pronunciation of the words. You can review spelling alternations in the section on the present indicative in Unidad 1.

Imperfect Subjunctive: Regular -AR verbs
DESCANSAR: to rest
...que yo descansara	...que nosotros descansáramos
...que tú descansaras	(que vosotros descansarais)
...que él/ella/Ud. descansara	...que ellos/ellas/Uds. descansaran

Imperfect Subjunctive: Regular -ER and -IR verbs
VIVIR: to understand
...que yo viviera	...que nosotros viviéramos
...que tú vivieras	(...que vosotros vivierais)
...que él/ella/Ud. viviera	...que ellos/ellas/Uds. vivieran

Notes

1. The stem of the imperfect subjunctive is derived from the 3rd person plural (ellos/as) form of the preterite. This means that if a verb is irregular in the preterite forms, it will have the same irregularity in the imperfect subjunctive. Two examples are decir (pret. dijeron) and seguir (pret. siguieron):

dijera	dijéramos	siguiera	siguiéramos
dijeras	(dijerais)	siguieras	(siguierais)
dijera	dijeran	siguiera	siguieran

2. The nosotros form in the imperfect subjunctive always needs a written accent on the third from last syllable; no other form of the imperfect subjunctive needs a written accent.

Present Perfect Subjunctive
The present perfect subjunctive is formed with the present subjunctive conjugation of the verb haber plus the past participle, which for -ar verbs ends in -ado and for -er and -ir verbs ends in -ido. You can review the irregular past participles [here]. Here is the present perfect subjunctive of descansar:
...que yo haya descansado	...que nosotros hayamos descansado
...que tú hayas descansado	(que vosotros hayais descansado)
...que él/ella/Ud. haya descansado	...que ellos/as/Uds. hayan descansado

Pluperfect Subjunctive
The pluperfect subjunctive is formed with the imperfect subjunctive conjugation of the verb haber plus the past participle. Here is the pluperfect subjunctive of descansar:
...que yo hubiera descansado	...que nosotros hubiéramos descansado
...que tú hubieras descansado	(que vosotros hubierais descansado)
...que él hubiera descansado	...que ellas hubieran descansado

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