Expressing Wishes and Desires with the Subjunctive

RELEVANT LESSON:

1. Subjunctive: Wishes and Regular Forms

Explanation

Quick Answer

The subjunctive (el subjuntivo) is one of three moods in Spanish, and it is often used to talk about wishes and desires.

WEIRDO

Many of the verbs and phrases that require the subjunctive fit into the acronym WEIRDO: Wishes, Emotions, Impersonal expressions, Recommendations, Doubt/Denial, and Ojalá. In this article, we're going to take a look at wishes.

Wishes

Wishing, wanting, demanding, desiring, expecting, ordering, and preferring all fall into the category of wishes. Additionally, mentioning the nonexistence or indefiniteness of something that is desired falls into this category.

Wishing Verbs

The following verbs are commonly used to express a wish or desire and, when used as the verb in the main clause of a sentence, will indicate that the following verb in the dependent clause will be in the subjunctive.

Spanish	English	Spanish	English
agradecer	to be grateful	insistir	to insist
no tener	to not have	buscar	to look for
mandar	to order	pedir	to request
desear	to wish	necesitar	to need
preferir	to prefer	esperar	to hope, to expect
no encontrar	to not find	querer	to want
exigir	to demand	no haber	there is/are not

Check out these examples. Note that they all use one of the above wishing verbs in conjunction with the word que.

examples
Solo te pido que mantengas la calma. I just ask that you retain your composure.
Esperamos que cocines bien. We hope that you cook well.
El rey desea que cenes con él. The king wishes you to dine with him.
Quiero salir con un hombre que me compre flores. I want to date a guy who buys me flowers.