Spanish 5.6. Perfect Subjunctive Tense

In this lesson, we study the perfect subjunctive tense in Spanish.

The subjunctive mood is used to express opinion, possibility, and feelings such as fear, doubt, hope, desire, etc.

We also know that the present perfect tense describes events that happened recently or started in the past and continue in the present.

Now, we will study the case when we want to express opinions, possibilities, and feelings, such as fear, doubt, hope, desire, etc., about something that happened recently or started in the past and continues in the present. In other words, we want to describe the present perfect but in the subjunctive mood, i.e., the perfect subjunctive.

Conjugation

The perfect subjunctive, similar to the present perfect in the indicative, uses the past participle. However, the only difference is that the auxiliary verb “haber” is conjugated in the subjunctive.

		-ar ending hablar	-er ending comer	-ir ending vivir
yo	haya	hablado	comido	vivido
tú	hayas
él/ella/usted	haya
nosotros/-as	hayamos
vosotros/-as	hayáis
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hayan

Examples

Let us look at some examples of the perfect subjunctive tense in Spanish:

		Examples
yo	haya	Es bueno que haya descansado después del partido.	It is good that I have relaxed after the match.
tú	hayas	Espero que hayas disfrutado tu viaje.	I hope that you have enjoyed your trip.
él/ella/usted	haya	Me pone triste que no me haya llamado.	It makes me sad that he hasn’t called me.
nosotros/-as	hayamos	Dudo que hayamos visto tu casa antes de hoy.	I doubt that we have seen your house before today.
vosotros/-as	hayáis	Estoy feliz de que hayáis llegado.	I am happy that you have arrived.
ellos/ellas/ustedes	hayan	No creo que hayan vivido aquí.	I don’t believe they have lived here.

Other Uses of the Perfect Subjunctive

Another less common use is to describe things that will have been completed in the future. It is, in effect, expressing the future perfect in the subjunctive mood, for example:

Espero que hayas terminado de escribir el libro para el próximo año.

I hope that you will have finished writing the book by next year.

Note that “para el próximo año” (by next year) is what clarified the meaning to be in the future. Otherwise, without reference to some future time, it is more likely to assume the following meaning:

Espero que hayas terminado de escribir el libro.

I hope that you have finished writing the book.

Next: Imperfect Subjunctive

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