image description:
panik kalm panik meme template.
panik: accidentally saying “hubiera” instead of “habriá”
kalm: natives say it the same way
panik: they’re also wrong

help folks! Spanish subjunctives are killing me :'(

  • InfiniWheel@lemmy.one
    27·
    10 months ago

    Look at it from the bright side, if everyone uses it incorrectly it will eventually become the correct version. That’s how we got so many romance languages in the first place.

  • Karu 🐲@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    10 months ago

    Formally, “hubiera”/“hubiese” is only used within subclauses, i.e «si lo hubiera visto, habría hecho algo» etc. They never stand as the only verb and don’t appear in simple clauses. You can’t say “hubiera hecho algo”, it’s “habría hecho algo”. Here, the subjunctive (hubiera) is doing the same job as “were” in english, and the conditional (habría) is equivalent to “would”: «if I were luckier, it would have worked out». This is the case with subjunctives in general, they mostly only ever appear in subclauses other than very specific exceptions (such as negative imperative or vestigial expressions like «Dios quiera que…»). The trick is learning which subclauses use indicative and which use subjunctive :)

    Informally, though, natives will tell you that it doesn’t matter because it truly doesn’t. The formula “if (subjunctive) then (subjunctive)” is understood by everybody with the same meaning as “if (subjunctive) then (conditional)”, and you can even use it in formal settings such as when talking to your boss, at least in Spain.

    Source: Am native, from Spain. Good luck with the language learning!

  • kubica@kbin.social
    5·
    10 months ago

    Can I help? I don’t think so. Can I make it worse? Maybe, because there’s also “hubiese”.

      • kubica@kbin.social
        3·
        10 months ago

        It seems to be less common in America. And a bit random in Spain using hubiera and hubiese more interchangeably.

      • black0ut@pawb.social
        2·
        10 months ago

        Yes, we use it. However, it’s more common to say “hubiera”. There’s no specific rule to differenciate between both, but at least in the center and north of spain we mostly use “hubiera” for first person and “hubiese” for third person.

        “Ojalá hubiera podido ir, pero tenía deberes” (yo)

        “Ojalá David hubiese venido, se lo habría pasado bien” (él)

        As I said, both options would be correct in both cases, and probably in other places they use the words differently.