Subjunctive in adjective clause practices "A" and "B"

[laepelba]

I found these exercises online, but there are no answers available. My answers are given in BOLD font. Please check to see if my answers are correct. Thank you for any corrections that you might be able to give me.

Exercise A: Write the answer in the present subjunctive.
1. Busco una novia que sepa ser una buena amiga. (saber)
2. Quiero una chica con quien pueda hablar fácilmente. (poder)
3. Me hace falta una mujer que me comprenda. (comprender)
4. Quiero tener una novia con quien yo me divierta. (divertirse)
5. Necesito una chica que sea inteligente. (ser)
6. Estoy buscando una novia que tenga un buen sentido del humor. (tener)

Exercise B: Choose the present indicative or the present subjunctive.
Diálogo 1
—Quiero una secretaria que sepa (saber) italiano.
—No conozco a nadie que hable (hablar) italiano, pero tengo una amiga que sabe (saber) rumano.
—No me interesa nadie que pueda (poder) hablar rumano. Lo siento.

Diálogo 2
—Necesito un coche que no cueste (costar) mucho. ¿Tiene algunos modelos?
—Sí, tengo este coche, que cuesta (costar) solo 14.000 euros.
—Ahora tengo un coche que no corre (correr) mucho, y me gustaría comprar uno que pueda (poder) correr a grandes velocidades.
—Aquí tengo uno que alcanza (alcanzar) los 200 kilómetros por hora en un pispás.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by laepelba

I found these exercises online, but there are no answers available. My answers are given in BOLD font. Please check to see if my answers are correct. Thank you for any corrections that you might be able to give me.

Exercise A: Write the answer in the present subjunctive.
1. Busco una novia que sepa ser una buena amiga. (saber)
2. Quiero una chica con quien pueda hablar fácilmente. (poder)
3. Me hace falta una mujer que me comprenda. (comprender)
4. Quiero tener una novia con quien yo me divierta. (divertirse)
5. Necesito una chica que sea inteligente. (ser)
6. Estoy buscando una novia que tenga un buen sentido del humor. (tener)

Exercise B: Choose the present indicative or the present subjunctive.
Diálogo 1
—Quiero una secretaria que sepa (saber) italiano.
—No conozco a nadie que hable (hablar) italiano, pero tengo una amiga que sabe (saber) rumano.
—No me interesa nadie que pueda (poder) hablar rumano. Lo siento.

Diálogo 2
—Necesito un coche que no cueste (costar) mucho. ¿Tiene algunos modelos?
—Sí, tengo este coche, que cuesta (costar) solo 14.000 euros.
—Ahora tengo un coche que no corre (correr) mucho, y me gustaría comprar uno que pueda (poder) correr a grandes velocidades.
—Aquí tengo uno que alcanza (alcanzar) los 200 kilómetros por hora en un pispás.

Wow!! Wow!!

[laepelba]

Woo hoo!! Thanks!! There was only one that I wasn't sure about ... the one in exercise B that started with "No me interesa...." But the negation made me think that it should be subjunctive. Anyway, thank you for correcting my work. I have some more exercises from this same site, but I'll post them tomorrow.....

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Woo hoo!! Thanks!! There was only one that I wasn't sure about ... the one in exercise B that started with "No me interesa...." But the negation made me think that it should be subjunctive. Anyway, thank you for correcting my work. I have some more exercises from this same site, but I'll post them tomorrow.....

You're very welcome.

Hasta mañana, que duermas bien

[Vikingo]

Well done, laepelba! You're giving me a guilty conscience, I should have done some subjunctive exercises myself in a book I have, but I've been putting it off... hmmmmm.

However, does the wording in exercise A 4 seem off to anyone else? Not the answer, the way the rules are set up, but I think it should have been "con quien divertirme" or "con quien me pueda divertir".

What say you?

[aleCcowaN]

Yes, but it's a matter of semantics and taste. "Que sea divertida" when personality is the issue, or "con quien nos divirtamos" if it's a matter of enjoing, those would be the usual ways to render. "Con quien yo me divierta" sounds the same + "un revolcón". Without that "yo" it sounds less carnal.

[Vikingo]

Thanks, aleC

I don't know if this applies here, but I found a rule (#54) in Borrego et al:

---
Regla: Cuando se habla de la _disponibilidad_ de un antecedente sobre el cual o en relación con el cual podamos ejercer una actividad, la oración de relativo correspondiente va en infinitivo.

Efectos de la violación: El uso de una forma personal produce, según los casos, secuencias inaceptables o secuencias de significado distinto. Las secuencias inaceptables suelen dejar de serlo si la forma personal que se utiliza pertenece a un verbo _poder_ (o de parecido carácter, como _deber_) que estaba sobreentendido y que se hace explícito.
---

There are two pages of explanation, but the closest example to this case would be:

Por favor, busca a alguien a quien preguntarle / Por favor, busca a alguien a quien podamos (podáis, puedas, poder, etc.) preguntarle.

I don't know. Maybe in A 4 the focus isn't so much on _disponibilidad_, but rather that there are some people with which the guy has fun, and others that he doesn't?

Anyway, thanks for the answer. My Spanish ears still need tuning.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by Vikingo

Regla: Cuando se habla de la _disponibilidad_ de un antecedente sobre el cual o en relación con el cual podamos ejercer una actividad, la oración de relativo correspondiente va en infinitivo.

Efectos de la violación: El uso de una forma personal produce, según los casos, secuencias inaceptables o secuencias de significado distinto. Las secuencias inaceptables suelen dejar de serlo si la forma personal que se utiliza pertenece a un verbo _poder_ (o de parecido carácter, como _deber_) que estaba sobreentendido y que se hace explícito.

My apologies for the delay (I was out a few days)

This "rule" (I have a hard time dealing with those supposed rules) applies to sentences like the examples and it tries to avoid uses like

"Busca a alguien a quien le pregunte/mos"

that sounds pretty much like the other person handcuffing a bloke in order to let the first person interrogate him extensively. I see a link between both cases but just in a symbolic level. There is indeed a hint of you becoming very proficient in these subjunctive businesses: you perceived that a conjugated verb, even when subjunctive is involved, may make the object to look like a tool used to perform the verb's action, so an infinitive suits better.

[Vikingo]

Thanks again, aleC

I agree totally with your view on "rules", as I've seen a lot of them, and they very often present language and communication as some kind of bondage. When they're also incomplete, inaccurate or downright wrong, it's really quite irritating. Borrego & co just use "rules" as a way of differentiating the many uses and contexts, though, and try to specify what the choices tend to be and what they mean - and where the gray areas are. For me personally, their explanations have helped me a lot.

I also get your handcuffing-analogy... "this is just what's going down!" , and I see how the A4-case is different, I think: Seems to me that the guy telling us "Quiero tener una novia con quien yo me divierta" has some experience with novias he doesn't divertirse with, and some with which he does (excuse my Spanglish), and simply uses that as a criterium. (?) Which may or may not include revolcones, I don't know.

Nice to see you on the forum here, your insights are always intelligent and well expressed