Portuguese Subjunctive: The Mood for Doubt, Wish and Maybe

The Portuguese subjunctive is the form a verb takes when the sentence is not stating a fact. Something hoped for, doubted, wanted, possible, or simply not yet real goes into the subjunctive; something asserted as true stays in the ordinary indicative. Sei que ele vem states a fact: I know he is coming. Espero que ele venha does not: I hope he comes. Same verb, different mood, and Portuguese will not let you blur the two.

English keeps the subjunctive only as a fossil, in if I were you and God save the King. In Portuguese it is still doing a full day's work, and it has three simple tenses (plus compound ones built with ter) where most learners expect one.

The three subjunctives at a glance

The present and imperfect have cousins in Spanish, French and Italian. The future subjunctive is the one Portuguese kept when its neighbours let theirs go, and it is the one that catches English speakers out, because nothing in English prepares you for it.

The present subjunctive: forms

The rule is short. Take the eu form of the present tense, drop the -o, and swap in the "opposite" vowel: -ar verbs take -e, and -er and -ir verbs take -a.

Starting from the eu form is not a formality. It is why a verb that is irregular in the first person carries that irregularity straight into the subjunctive, and why you get a lot of these free:

The genuine irregulars are a short list, and every one of them is a verb you use daily: ser gives seja, estar gives esteja, ir gives vá, saber gives saiba, querer gives queira, haver gives haja, and dar gives dê. Learn those seven as vocabulary.

When to use the present subjunctive

The subjunctive almost always lives in a clause introduced by que, and it is triggered by what comes before the que. The triggers fall into a few families.

Wishes and wants about someone else.

• Quero que você venha. - I want you to come.
• Espero que você goste. - I hope you like it.
• É melhor que ele saiba. - It is better that he knows.

Doubt and denial.

• Duvido que ela saiba. - I doubt she knows.
• Não acho que ele venha. - I do not think he is coming.

Judgements about something that may or may not happen.

• É importante que você durma. - It is important that you sleep.
• É possível que ele esteja em casa. - He might be at home.

Certain conjunctions, which always take it, because the event they introduce is not yet a fact:

• para que - so that: Eu falo devagar para que você entenda. - I speak slowly so that you understand.
• antes que - before: Vamos antes que seja tarde. - Let's go before it is too late.
• embora - although: Embora seja difícil, vale a pena. - Although it is hard, it is worth it.

And talvez. Maybe is the purest trigger of all: Talvez ele esteja em casa. - Maybe he is at home. Put talvez before the verb and the subjunctive follows. (Put it after, as in ele está em casa, talvez, and speakers relax back to the indicative.)

The test that settles most cases

Ask: is the speaker asserting this as true? Sei que, acho que, é verdade que all assert, so they take the indicative. Espero que, duvido que, não acho que, talvez do not, so they take the subjunctive. It is a mood of stance, not of tense.

The imperfect subjunctive: if I were

The imperfect subjunctive is built from the eles form of the simple past. Drop the -ram and add -sse:

No exceptions: if you know the past tense, you know this. It does two jobs.

Hypotheticals with se, where the thing imagined is not true or not likely:

• Se eu fosse você, eu falaria com ela. - If I were you, I would talk to her.
• Se eu tivesse dinheiro, eu compraria um carro. - If I had money, I would buy a car.

Past versions of the present-subjunctive triggers. Put the trigger in the past and the subjunctive follows it back:

• Eu queria que você viesse. - I wanted you to come.

The future subjunctive: the one nobody warns you about

This is Portuguese's own tense, and it is used constantly in ordinary speech. It follows quando, se, assim que, enquanto, como and o que whenever they point at the future.

Its formation starts from the same eles past form: drop the -am.

Look at the first row. For a regular verb, the future subjunctive is spelled exactly like the infinitive, which is the whole reason learners miss it: quando eu chegar looks like a sentence with an infinitive in it. It is not. The irregular verbs give the game away, because for, tiver and puder are obviously not infinitives. (And since ser and ir share a past tense, for serves both: quando eu for para casa, when I go home.)

In practice:

• Quando eu chegar, eu te ligo. - When I arrive, I will call you.
• Se você quiser, eu te ajudo. - If you like, I will help you.
• Assim que ele sair, a gente começa. - As soon as he leaves, we will start.

How much Brazilians actually use it

More than learners hope and less than textbooks imply. The honest picture:

• The future subjunctive is rock solid. Quando eu chegar, se você puder, como você quiser: every Brazilian says these, every day, in every register. Get these wrong and it is noticed.
• The present subjunctive after wishes is solid too. Espero que, quero que, para que are followed by the subjunctive in normal speech, not just in writing.
• The imperfect subjunctive after se is universal, and se eu fosse você is as common as if I were you.
• Talvez and the weaker triggers wobble. In fast, relaxed speech you will hear talvez with the indicative, especially when it comes late in the sentence. That is not a licence to do it; it is a sign that the subjunctive after talvez is the careful, never-wrong choice.

The one thing that does not happen is Brazilians dropping the subjunctive wholesale. It is not a written-only mood clinging on in grammar books; it is in the mouth of every teenager in São Paulo.

Set phrases worth stealing whole

Some of the most common subjunctives in Brazilian speech are frozen phrases, and they are worth learning as single units before you understand every part of them:

• Deus queira. - God willing. (Literally may God want it.)
• Seja como for. - Be that as it may. A present and a future subjunctive in three words.
• Seja o que for. - Whatever it is.
• Como você quiser. - As you like, whatever you want.
• Que seja. - So be it, fine.

Notice that none of them needs a trigger verb in front. The subjunctive is carrying the wish on its own, exactly as it does in the English fossil so be it. Drop two or three of these into conversation and the mood stops feeling like a grammar topic and starts feeling like Portuguese.

Mistakes English speakers make

1. Putting the subjunctive after acho que. It feels uncertain, so learners reach for the subjunctive. But acho que is you stating your view, and it takes the indicative: Acho que ele vem. Only the negative flips it: Não acho que ele venha.

2. Using the present or the future after quando. English says when I arrive. Portuguese says neither quando eu chego (that means whenever I arrive, a habit) nor quando eu chegarei. It says quando eu chegar. See the Portuguese future tense for the other half of those sentences.

3. Putting the present subjunctive after se. It is tempting, because an if feels uncertain. Se never takes the present subjunctive. A real condition about now takes the indicative (se você quer, if you want); a real condition about the future takes the future subjunctive (se você quiser); a hypothetical takes the imperfect (se você quisesse). Three choices, and se eu seja is not one of them.

4. Using que + subjunctive when the subject is the same. If you are the one who wants and the one who speaks, Portuguese uses a plain infinitive, just as English does: Eu quero falar, I want to speak. The que + subjunctive structure is for wanting something of someone else: Eu quero que você fale.

What to do next

Learn the present subjunctive rule (the eu form, the opposite vowel) and the seven irregulars as a block. Then get quando eu + future subjunctive and se eu fosse into your mouth as whole phrases, because they come up in almost every conversation about plans. The imperative is the natural next step: the standard command for você is simply the present subjunctive, so everything on this page pays for itself twice.

Every verb here, from esperar and querer to saber and poder, is taught in the Portuguese course, which is where to drill them.