Subjunctive mood?

[kisatchie]

I'm writing because I am STRUGGLING with a 100 word paragraph I have to write in subjunctive mood for spanish class.

The subject is "things i want to do after college."

I've been working on this for 2 hours and all I have is:

"Ojalá yo saque buenas notas este semestre. Mi padre espera que me gradúe en mayo próximo. No es seguro que alguien me va a dar un trabajo. "

I want to say stuff about me and my boyfriend like, "I hope my boyfriend proposes to me" - I have no idea how to say that. And "We want a house with a garden" .... etc. I have to fill out the rest so its' 100 words. But it all has to be subjunctive. I am kind of going crazy here. I'm not asking anyone to do the work for me, I just need some guidelines about how to talk about myself in subjunctive mood , or how I can talk about things that other people want me to do, stuff like that. I need a pattern to follow.

Thanks in advance!

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by kisatchie

... I've been working on this for 2 hours and all I have is:

"Ojalá yo saque buenas notas este semestre. Mi padre espera que me gradúe en mayo próximo. No es seguro que alguien me va a dar un trabajo."

Welcome to the forums!

What you have written so far has just a couple of errors, which I marked above. To say 'in May', use a definite article with the month. The dependent clause of the last sentence should contain a subjunctive mood verb in it, since the main clause contains 'no es seguro que'.

Talking about things you hope will happen are always eligible for the subjunctive mood. Your second sentence used 'esperar'. You can write many more sentences using that verb. If 'que' follows a verb of volition, the verb in the dependent clause will be cast in the subjunctive unless there is no change in subject.
For example,
Espero graduarme. (I hope to graduate.)
Espero que me gradúe. (I hope I graduate.)
Mi padre espera que me gradúe. (My father hopes I graduate.)

Use other verbs of volition, like 'desear que', 'pedir que', 'querer que', 'preferir que', or express emotions, like 'sentirse que', 'lamentar que' 'estar contento/-a de que', etc.
Use set phrases that always take the subjunctive, like 'para que', 'antes (de) que', 'ojalá (que)', 'con tal (de) que', 'a fin de que', 'a menos que', 'sin que', etc.
Use any of the following: 'dudar que', 'es importante que', 'es necesario que'

Search our site for many more examples of when to use the subjunctive.