Using the Subjunctive to Describe Future Actions

In Spanish, when expressing possibility or future actions that have not yet occurred using cuando, e.g., when X happens... or tal vez or quizá -- perhaps, maybe, one uses the subjunctive. It's important to understand that in both of these circumstances, the actions being described are potential occurences, and therefore, not real.

Here is a list of important expressions that require the subjunctive when used to talk about uncompleted future actions:

  • a menos que -- unless

    antes (de) que -- before

    con tal (de) que -- provided that

    cuando -- when

    después (de) que -- after

    en caso de que -- in case

    en cuanto -- as soon as

    hasta que -- until

    mientras que -- while

    para que     -- so that

    sin que -- without

    tan pronto como -- as soon


Note that these phrases "trigger" the subjunctive only when they refer to an action which -- at the moment of the occurence of the first verb and in the mind of the speaker -- hasn't yet occured or doesn't exist, and so is not yet real.

Compare the following:

  • Cuando voy al cine, como palomitas.
    When I go to the cinema, I eat popcorn.(Indicative mood, describes habitual actions that have already taken place and therefore are real)

    Cuando vaya al cine, comeré palomitas.
    When I go to the cinema, I will eat popcorn. (Subjunctive mood, describes a future action dependent upon when another action might occur in the future, therefore it has not yet taken place and consequently, is not real.)

    Siempre salimos tan pronto como terminas.
    We always leave as soon as you are finished. (Indicative mood; describes actions that have already taken place and therefore are real)

    Tan pronto como termines, saldremos.
    As soon as you are finished, we will leave. (Subjunctive mood; describes a future, possible action dependent upon when another action might occur in the future, therefore it has not yet taken place and consequently, is not real.)

    Esta vez, salimos antes de que terminaras.
    This time, we left before you finished.
    (Subjunctive mood; describes an action in the past that, at the moment of the occurence of the first verb, had not yet happened, and therefore, was not real. The fact that we are talking in this moment about events in the past does not imply that everything we talk about now actually happened or was real at the moment of the occurence of the first verb.)
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