Value Judgments and the Subjunctive Mood

One common use for using the subjunctive mood in Spanish is in expressing value judgments. This is quite similar to using the subjunctive mood when discussing emotional reactions, but value judgments may not be so obvious to English speakers.

Such uses of the subjunctive typically follow this pattern:

main verb (indicative mood) + que + subordinate verb (subjunctive mood)

Here are some examples of this use of the subjunctive mood (indicated in boldface):

• Es importante que me digas que crees. It is important that you tell me what you believe.
• Me duele que el presidente no hiciera ninguna referencia a mi carta. It hurts me that the president didn't make any reference to my letter.
• No es suficiente que tengamos buenas leyes. It isn't enough that we have good laws.
• Sería mejor que no hiciéramos huelga. It would be better if we didn't go on strike.

Note how a similar sentence construction is used with the indicative mood (indicated below in boldface) when making statements of fact rather than value judgement:

• Es cierto que solo dos personas conocen la formula secreta. It is certain that only two people know the secret formula.
• Es obvio que la piratería está causando un enorme daño a las discográficas. It is obvious that piracy is causing great harm to the music companies.

This distinction between value judgments and facts can seem arbitrary, as in the following sentence:

Es verdad que tienen buenas intenciones. It is true they have good intentions.)

The indicative mood is used there because of the phrase es verdad que, which is seen as a way of stating a fact rather than a value judgment. Thus, to determine which mood to use, you need to look at the words of the main clause of the sentence. Phrases such as these will almost always be followed by the subjunctive mood:

• Es interesante que ... It's interesting that ...
• Aconsejar que ... To advise that ...
• Es comprensible que ... It is understandable that ...
• Es justo que ... It is right (fair, just) that ...

But phrases such as these will typically be followed by the indicative mood:

• Es obvio que... It's obvious that ...
• La realidad es que... The reality is that ...