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Five Minute Study - SPANISH and ENGLISH compared Guía de la gramática inglesa...
En estas lecciones breves se comparan el inglés hablado y coloquial con el español con el fin de ayudar al estudiante a apreciar tanto las diferencias como las similitudes lingüísticas entre los dos idiomas.
The future and the subjunctive
This aspect of the subjunctive is more a concern for the learner of Spanish than the learner of English. The Spanish should only be aware of the absence of change of verb form between the two versions. Students of Spanish, however, need to think before choosing the subjunctive or the indicative. Let's look at some examples:
Cuando viene Juan a visitar, siempre me trae flores When Juan comes to visit, he always brings me flowers
Cuando tienes tiempo libre, normalmente me ayudas con mis deberes When you have free time, you usually help me with my homework
The Spanish verbs here: "viene" and "tienes" are said to be in the indicative. This form of the verb is used here because we're talking about what happens generally (never, sometimes, usually, always etc.).
But when we refer to a future event we usually use the subjunctive after words like "cuando":
Cuando venga Juan a visitar, me traerá flores. When Juan comes to visit, he'll bring flowers.
Cuando tengas tiempo libre, ¿me puedes ayudar con los deberes? When you're free, could you help me with my homework?
But, be careful. Notice these sentences have an accompanying clause: ...me traerá flores. / ...¿me puedes ayudar con los deberes?
If we just ask when somebody is going to do something in the future, we will use the indicative:
¿Cuándo vienes a verme? ¿La semana que viene? ¡Estupendo! When are you coming to see me? Next week? That's wonderful!
¿Cuándo me vas a ayudar con mis deberes? ¡¿Nunca?! Pues, ¡vete a freir espárragos! When are you going to help me with my homework? ¡Never! Well, go and jump in the lake!
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