Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: Feel the Fear and 'Subjunctive' Anyway!

Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: Feel the Fear and 'Subjunctive' Anyway!

by Gordon Smith-Durán, Cynthia Smith-Durán

Overview

We, Gordon and Cynthia of LightSpeed Spanish, are totally excited to bring you the book that really does demystify the Present and Past Spanish Subjunctive. Most students of the Spanish language shy away from this subject and it's no wonder! So many books on the market make it look complex and difficult to understand. Yet here at LightSpeed Spanish we have developed the perfect system to walk you through the entire range of the Spanish Subjunctive, step by step. This comprehensive book uses simple, easy to understand explanations that won't leave you mind boggled, while it guides you through the creation of over 600 Subjunctive sentences. By the time you've finished this learning journey we anticipate that you will be more confident, more at ease and far more able to use the Spanish Subjunctive in every facet of your communication. It really is a must buy for any serious student of the Spanish language!

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781943848737
Publisher: LightSpeed Spanish
Publication date: 05/31/2015
Series: Second Edition , #2
Pages: 326
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.68(d)

Table of Contents

Contents
Where it all began. 7
Getting to the Spanish Subjunctive. 10
My first tentative steps. 11
I contracted 'Subjunctivitus'. 13
My 'light bulb' moment. 14
So, how does that help us as adults? 15
Learning the triggers. 17
What this book won't do. 18
A flowchart of your learning journey. 19
Shall we start? 20
The AR subjunctive structure. 21
The ER/IR subjunctive structure. 23
A handy metaphor to help you. 30
Wishes. 33
Esperar. 36
Opinions. 40
The extended trigger. 47
Obligations. 54
Super review . 66
Possibilities. 69
The non-triggers. 75
El hecho de que... 78
Subjunctivitus. 82
The thing about Quizás 83
The subtle triggers that catch us out. 88
Afterwards. 95
When is an afterwards trigger not a trigger? 109
The power of three. 114
Súper mega repaso. 116
The extended and the double trigger. 141
The present subjunctive with Haber. 149
Levels of learning. 157
The imperfect subjunctive. 164
Wishes. 171
Opinions. 175
Mixing the present and the past. 176
Obligations. 179
Possibilities. 183
Afterwards. 186
Repaso. 188
Using the perfect tense with the Imp Subj. 191
The famous If/Would structure. 209
If/Will in the past. 215
The conditional + que + Imp Subj. 218
The two jobs of Ojalá. 220
As if... 225
The weird and wonderful. 227
Time out to contemplate. 242
The last full review. 244
Answers to the exercises. 290
Index of verb conjugations. 308

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Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: Feel the Fear and 'Subjunctive' Anyway! 5 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 1 reviews.
BibleRit More than 1 year ago
Excellent Book! On page 44 of the book, the authors write, “The subjunctive is not just about casting doubt on things. It’s so much more than that!” I couldn’t agree more. By going through this book and the many exercises it contains, I’ve not only improved my knowledge and use of the subjunctive, but have refreshed my vocabulary and even learned some new words, expressions and sentence structures. The subjunctive is broken down and dissected in this book. I don’t see a small 3 page section of the subjunctive in a grammar review book, but rather an entire book of almost 200 pages on the subject! This book enables us to identify what they call the “subjunctive triggers”. “This trigger is ‘a very specific set of words that ‘fire off’ the subjunctive”. (page 21) The book starts off with a very interesting introduction by the authors on “subjunctivitus” and Gordon’s “light bulb moment”. It goes on to review the subjunctive structure – verb conjugation to form the subjunctive, then jumps right in. A metaphor that is presented and utilized throughout the book is: ¡WOOPA! …which stands for: Wishes Opinions Obligations Possibilities Afterwards I could explain it further, but that’s what the book is for. :) Exercises. Lots and lots of good exercises on the different kinds of subjunctive triggers. Instead of fill-in-the blank, I like that the authors present the sentences in English, which we translate into Spanish and write them down. This is excellent for language learning. Translating and writing them down somehow tends to make them “stick” in our brains. The final review towards the end of the book is about 10 pages long and covers all the different triggers that are mentioned in the text once again. In case you need it, there is also an index of verb conjugations in the back of the book. Conclusion If I had three thumbs, I’d give this book three thumbs up. Have you ever wasted money on a book before? Not gonna happen if you purchase this one. You’ll love it. I highly recommend it to anyone who is serious about learning or reviewing Spanish. I will definitely check out Gordon and Cynthia’s other books! Read the full review here: https://givemefluency.wordpress.com/2016/01/01/demystifying-the-spanish-subjunctive-book-review/