Modern Spanish Grammar: A Practical Guide

The subjunctive in main clauses 18.3Los estudiantes que no tengan libros deben hacer cola en el pasillo.Those students who haven’t got books should form a queue in thecorridor. (it is not known which students have no books)Necesito una secretaria que hable portugués.I need a secretary who can speak Portuguese. (I don’t know who thatwill be)Toma los que quieras.Take whichever you want.Recognizing an indefinite antecedent is difficult for English speakers, sinceindefiniteness is not marked grammatically in English in the same way as in Spanish.There is in Spanish a substantial difference in meaning between the use of theindicative and the subjunctive in relative clauses which sometimes cannot easily berendered in English:Busco un libro que tenga 200 páginas.I’m looking for a book that has 200 pages.(I don’t know which it will be, but I need one that has 200 pages, perhaps to getan idea of how thick such a book would be)Busco un libro que tiene 200 páginas.I’m looking for a book that has 200 pages.(This must be a specific book I know about already: perhaps I’ve lost the bookand I can remember that one of its characteristics was that it had 200 pages)When the antecedent is a person, this difference is often also marked by the use of thepersonal a (see 25.1.1.1):Necesitamos una señora que cuide a los niños.We need a lady to look after the children.(The lady is not yet identified)Busco a una niña que lleva una falda amarilla.I’m looking for a little girl who is wearing a yellow skirt.(I know who she is already; the yellow skirt will identify her)A special group of such antecedents are forms ending in -quiera, which correspond toEnglish forms ending in ‘-ever’:quienquiera que sea ‘whoever it is’/‘may be’cualquiera que te guste ‘whichever you like’dondequiera que busques ‘wherever you look’ 18.318.3.113.5 (p. 53); 13.6 (p. 54)The subjunctive in main clausesImperativesThe subjunctive forms all imperatives (see 16.1.1.6) except for those corresponding totú (vos) and vosotros/as, and all negative imperatives.¡Salga de aquí! (usted)Get out of here!91