Spanish 5.7. Imperfect Subjunctive Tense

The imperfect subjunctive tense, similar to the present perfect in the subjunctive, is used in Spanish to express desires and wishes. However, these desires and wishes are often in the past or refer to unlikely events or possibilities, for example:

Si yo fuera tú, no iría.

If I were you, I wouldn’t go.

Conjugation

The stem used to form the imperfect subjunctive conjugation comes from the third-person plural form of the preterite rather than the infinitive, that is, the preterite that follows “ellos” or “ellas” minus “-ron,” for example:

Infinitive	Third-person plural preterite	Imperfect subjunctive stem
tener	ellos/ellas tuvieron	tuvie-
ir	ellos/ellas fueron	fue-
comer	ellos/ellas comieron	comie-

Next, one of the following two endings is attached to the stem. Both endings are equally acceptable, although the first group is more widely used. All verbs follow these conjugation rules, and there are no irregular verbs.

yo	-ra	-se	hablara/hablase
tú	-ras	-ses	hablaras/hablases
él/ella/usted	-ra	-se	hablara/hablase
nosotros/-as	-ramos	-semos	habláramos/hablásemos
vosotros/-as	-rais	-seis	hablarais/hablaseis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	-ran	-sen	hablaran/hablasen

Uses of the Imperfect Subjunctive

Let us discuss the common uses of the imperfect subjunctive tense in Spanish and look at some examples.

1. Expressing Past Desires, Wishes, Feelings, Requests, and Recommendations.

Whereas the present subjunctive is used to express opinion, possibility, and feelings such as fear, doubt, hope, desire, etc., about something in the present or the future, the imperfect subjunctive can be used similarly, but when the hope, desire, feeling, etc. itself is in the past.

For example, using the present subjunctive, we can say:

Quiero que vengas a mi casa.	I want you to come to my house.
Me pone triste que no me llamen.	It makes me sad that they don’t call me.

If that hope or desire occurred in the past, the imperfect subjunctive should be used:

Quería que vinieras a mi casa.	I wanted you to come to my house.
Me ponía triste que no me llamaran.	It made me sad that they didn’t call me.

2. Unlikely or Hypothetical Conditional Statements

As discussed previously, conditional statements that contain hypothetical or unlikely assumptions, such as “if I were you,” “if I were the president,” and “if I had a lot of money,” use the imperfect subjunctive, for example:

Si yo fuera tú, no iría al gimnasio hoy.	If I were you, I wouldn’t go to the gym today.
Si tuviera mucho dinero, compraría un palacio.	If I had a lot of money, I would buy a palace.

3. Expressions with “ojalá” that contain unlikely or hypothetical events in the present or the future

We have previously discussed the use of “ojalá” in the present subjunctive to express hope for something to happen in the present or the future, for example:

Ojalá que no llueva esta noche.	Hopefully, it won’t rain tonight.
Ojalá que venga mi hermano hoy.	Hopefully, my brother will come today.

“Ojalá” can also be used along with the imperfect subjunctive to express hope that something, which is unlikely or improbable, would happen in the present or the future, for example:

Ojalá que pudiéramos ganar mucho dinero en un año.	I wish we could make a lot of money in one year.
Ojalá que viniera mi hermano hoy, pero siempre está ocupado.	I wish my brother would come today, but he is always busy.

Read also: Summary of the uses of “ojalá” in Spanish

4. Polite Requests

It is also very common to use the imperfect subjunctive to make polite requests, for example:

Quisiera un café, por favor.	I would like a coffee, please.
Quisiera que vinieras mañana.	I would like you to come tomorrow.

Next: Past & Conditional Progressive Tense

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