1. I am confused about the habitual action/pending action distinction, as well as when to use subjunctive with the con tal de que type phrases.
Many of the instances of the subjunctive that we have studied require the subjunctive whenever that instance occurs. To master these, you have to memorize those contexts where the use of the subjunctive is mandatory. Much more confusing are these cases where the use of the subjunctive or the indicative depends on the meaning you want to express. I think the sentences you are referring to are the following:
a. Cuando sepas si puedes ir al cine, llámame. or Llámame cuando sepas si puedes ir al cine.
a. When you know if you can go to the movies, call me. or Call me when you know if you can go to the movies.
The order of the above sentences doesn't matter, as the example shows. What is important to notice is the use of the subjunctive after cuando. By using the subjunctive in this sentence, I am signaling that the act of knowing whether you can go to the movie or not has not yet happened, but I expect that it will at some point in the future. I am NOT saying that you always call me when you know if you can go to the movies, which would be a habitual act. Consider the following sentence:
b. Cuando baila salsa en la discoteca, todos sabemos que está borracho.
b. When he dances salsa in the disco, well all know that he is drunk.
In this example, the use of the present indicative after cuando helps convey the idea that this is a habitual action. Whenever he dances salsa, that's when we know he's drunk. This is different from:
c. Cuando baile salsa, sabremos que está borracho.
c. When he dances salsa, we will know that he is drunk.
In this example, he has not yet started to dance salsa, but the idea is that he might and when he does, we will know that he is drunk. He may have done this many times in the past, but here we are talking about a specific moment that we expect might happen in the future. The other clue that this is not a habitual event is the use of the future (we will know) in the second part of the sentence.
The same idea is used when determining whether to use indicative of subjunctive with certain adverbial clauses. For example,
d. Iré de vacaciones después de que acabemos el semestre.
d. I will go on vacation after we finish the semester.
Después de que is not one of the adverbial phrases that always requires the subjunctive. We use the subjunctive when the event the verb represents is not habitual, but rather is a specific event that we think will occur in the future. In the above example, the use of the subjunctive (along with the use of the future iré) helps convey the idea that we have not yet finished the semester, but when we do, I will go on vacation. If all I wanted to say was that I always go on vacation after we finish a semester, I would have said:
e. Voy de vacaciones después de que acabamos el semestre.
e. I go on vacation after we finish the semester.
With the other adverbial expressions, there is nothing to figure out because they always require you to use the subjunctive, whether the action is habitual or not. You just have to memorize which adverbial expression these are.
2. I get confused when to use the subjunctive. We need to review the tense endings again so I can better understand.
I think you are confusing two different things. First, the subjunctive is not a tense; it's what we call a "mood". Spanish has two different moods: indicative and subjunctive. Spanish also has three basic tenses (which means, times): past, present, and future. To represent it schematically, it would look like this:
| Indicative | Subjunctive | |||||
| Past | Present | Future | Past | Present | Future | |
| preterite | imperfect | |||||
| hablé | hablaba | hablo | hablaré | hablara | hable |
NONE |
From the table you can see that in each
'mood' there are different tenses. In the indicative, there are 2 verb forms to
talk about the past (the preterite and the imperfect), and then there is one
present tense and one future. The subjunctive only has one past tense
(also know as the imperfect subjunctive) and one present tense. There is
no specific future tense form in the subjunctive. When the future is needed in
the subjunctive, the present subjunctive is used. For example,
a. Espero que mañana no haya una prueba.
a. I hope that tomorrowthere will not be a test .
This is it for the endings in the subjunctive. As for the uses, you will have to study all the uses we have learned this semester and memorize them.
3. There are so many different verb tenses. Can we review them all?
If we had time to do memorization drills in class, I would be happy to practice different verb conjugations with you. Unfortunately, there are so many other things that we need to do, and memorizing verb endings is something that each student can do by his/herself. Please use the verb charts at the back of our book to practice. Make flash cards with the name of a tense and a verb on one side and the conjugation on the other. Practice regular and irregular verbs. Do this over and over until you can get them correct all the time.
4. In a sentence when "es" is used after "que" - the phrase is no longer in the subjunctive, right? (because it's no longer connecting two sentences). Do I have this right?
I'm not sure if I understand the question, but let's try. The short answer is that the verb form "es" is a the present indicative form of the verb "ser". This form cannot be present subjunctive, because it is present indicative. It's like an apple cannot be an orange because it is an apple. I don't know if this was your questions. Just in case, here is another explanation..
Take the following example. If someone asked you what color your textbook is, you could reply with the following sentence:
a. Creo que es negro.
a. I believe that it is black.
This sentence is made up of two phrases. The first is "(yo) creo". The second is "(el libro) es negro". The two phrases are hooked together by the conjunction "que". The second phrase completes the first phrases by answering the question "what do I believe"- the answer is "it is black". So here we have a sentence made up of two phrases, each one with a different subject (I is the subject of the first phrase, and the book is the subject of the second phrase), connected by the word "que", but that does not use the subjunctive. Why? Because "creo" is not one of the phrases that requires that the subjunctive be used in the second part of the sentence. "No creo", on the other, is one of those phrases that requires the subjunctive in the second phrase of the sentence. For example:
b. No creo que sea negro.
b. I don't believe it is black.
To answer your question then, if you have two phrases hooked together with que and the second phrase has the verb "es", as in example 4a above, then you can be sure that the sentence does not have the subjunctive- only because the verb form "es" is not a subjunctive form.
(The following questions appear together with one answer because they all seemed to be saying the same thing)
5.
a. It's not that I'm confused, I just need lots of review. More practice.
b. I understand all of the situations in which the subjunctive is used, it's just difficult to remember all of those situations together.
c. The only thing that confuses me about subjunctive is how there are so many different instances for which you do or do not use it.
Yep! The subjunctive is complicated only because it occurs in so many different types of contexts. Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about that. Spanish is just that way, and so you've got to learn it. What can help, however, is that all the different uses of the subjunctive fall into just a couple of categories that are easier to remember. We have gone over these many times. Here they are again. Keep in mind that we know have learned both present AND past subjunctive, with one exception (si clauses) both can be used in the following contexts... whether to use past or present depends on the overall time frame the sentence is describing:
In sentences expressing volition- when one subject expresses desire, obligation, preference...
Insisto en que mi profesora me de una A en la clase de español.
Cuando era joven, mis padres nunca querían que me fuera de su casa.
In sentences expressing doubt, denial, negation...
Dudo que la clase estudie español los fines de semana.
Nick no creía que Sean estuviera con Jessica Simpson la semana pasada.
In sentences expression emotion about another person´s action or another event...
Me alegro de que la clase estudie todos los días.
Me preocupa que la clase no estudie mucho.
Era triste que Ben y Jen terminaran su relación.
When describing unknown people, places, and thing...
Busco un restaurante que haga buenas margaritas.
Necesito ir a una playa donde los hombres sean muy guapos.
Quería pasar las vacaciones en un lugar que tuviera mucha vida nocturna.
When describing the conditions under which an action is done
Voy contigo al cine con tal de que pagues tú las entradas.
Mis amigos me harán una fiesta de cumpleaños aunque no sea mi cumpleaños.
Cuando acabe el semestre, voy de vacaciones.
When describing hypothetical conditions under which you would do something (past subjunctive only)
Si tuviera mucho dinero, compraría dos casas en La Jolla.
6.
a. The trick questions are the ones that throw me off. I know all have to pay attention to everything in the sentence, but I sometimes assume that there won´t be any trick questions.
b. The conjugation of the verb goes to which noun is another confusing area.
There are no trick questions anywhere. I think the statement refers to sentences of the following type:
Mario y Carlos buscaban un hotel que ___ (tener) habitaciones con tres camas.
Where you need to know what the subject is to be able to properly conjugate the verb. There's no trick here. This is a sentence, and in order to be able to properly conjugate the verb, you have to know what the subject is. How do you do this. Start out by figuring out what the sentence means. This sentence means "Mario and Carlos were looking for a hotel that had rooms with three beds. The verb tener is the verb "to have", so you have to figure out what the subject of the verb "to have" is in the sentence. In other words, figure out who or what is doing the "having" in this sentence. Clearly, it is the hotel, since Mario and Carlos are the subject of the verb "to look for". Another clue that "un hotel" is the subject of the sentence is that it appears immediately before the word "que" which means "that" ... "a hotel that....". Since "hotel" is singular, you must conjugate the verb in the third person, singular. Since the sentence is in the past tense (buscaban), and since this is a context where the subjunctive is required (i.e. looking for a hotel that you don't know whether it exists or not, and not talking about a specific hotel), you must use the past subjunctive.
7. I'm worried that we won't have enough time during the final to do the [type of exercise in question 6] because it takes a lot of time- Like math there are many things to figure out.
I agree. However, this is why you must study frequently and not wait until the last minute to study. This is why I have been telling you all along that you must study a little every day. Part of demonstrating the required proficiency for this level is being able to do a certain amount of work in a certain amount of time. You have to study enough to be able to demonstrate the types of skills required in the time provided for the exam. Rest assured that I put a great deal of time and consideration into the exams, so that they are appropriate for the level they are supposed to test.
If you have any questions about the answers posted, please do not hesitate to email me.