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Five-minute Spanish Lessons - Lesson 36.The future and the Spanish subjunctive.This subjunctive is more a concern for the learner of Spanish than the learner of English. Students of Spanish need to think before choosing the subjunctive or the indicative. Let's look at some examples: Cuando viene Juan a visitar, siempre me trae flores. When Juan comes to visit, he always brings me flowers. Cuando tienes tiempo libre, normalmente me ayudas con mis deberes. When you have free time, you usually help me with my homework. The Spanish verbs here: "viene" and "tienes" are said to be in the indicative. This form of the verb is used here because we're talking about what happens generally (never, sometimes, usually, always etc.). But when we refer to a future event we usually use the subjunctive after words like "cuando": Cuando venga Juan a visitar, me traerá flores. When Juan comes to visit, he'll bring flowers. Cuando tengas tiempo libre, ¿me puedes ayudar con los deberes? When you are free, could you help me with my homework? But, be careful. Notice these sentences refer to an event we expect will happen. If we just ask when somebody is going to do something in the future, we use the indicative: ¿Cuándo vienes a verme? ¿La semana que viene? ¡Estupendo! When are you coming to see me? Next week? That's wonderful! ¿Cuándo me vas a ayudar con mis deberes? ¡¿Nunca?! Pues, ¡vete a freir espárragos! When are you going to help me with my homework? ¡Never! Well, go and jump in the lake!
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