When To Not Use The Subjunctive in Spanish

Si las cosas salen bien.
If things go well.
(If everything turns out fine.)

“Si las cosas salen bien” or “if everything goes well (as in a relationship, new job, relocation to a new city, etc.)” is a useful phrase that you will commonly hear in Latin America.

After my last blog post, a customer emailed me to ask why didn’t I use the subjunctive in “Si las cosas salen bien.” Well, I found an article on the Net which helps to explain why the subjunctive is not used in this instance. As the article states:

“In the vast majority of cases the decision of which verb tense to use after ‘si’ (if) is easy to remember. The first thing is to remember that except in very rare cases, ‘si’ is NEVER followed by a verb in the present-tense subjunctive mood.” (emphasis added)

Here’s a link to the entire article:

http://spanish.about.com/od/verbs/qt/si_clause.htm

But you should be aware that we use the subjunctive with the conditional. For example, we use the imperfect subjunctive in order to say “I would live in Colombia if things were to go well.”

Viviría en Colombia si las cosas salieran bien.
I would live in Colombia if things were to go well.

As in English, we can reverse the order of the phrase:

Si las cosas salieran bien, viviría en Colombia.
If things were to go well, I would live in Colombia.

But when using the future tense in this case, you do NOT use any form of the subjunctive:

Viviré en Colombia si las cosas salen bien.
I will live in Colombia if things go well.

As in English, we can reverse the order of the phrase:

Si las cosas salen bien, viviré en Colombia .
If things go well, I will live in Colombia.

Before ending this blog post, I have another phrase that you will commonly hear in Latin America.

In English, if someone asks you “how old are you?” a common response is “guess?” or “guess how old
I am?”

How To Say How Old Are You In Spanish

Let me tell you about an incident involving an American friend of mine so that you will know the phrase that you’ll hear in Latin America in response to the question ¿Cuántos años tienes?

I have an American friend who is visiting me here in Colombia. His name is Tim. Tim speaks some Spanish — but he is far from fluent. Last night we went out to dinner at a sushi restaurant with some friends.
And Tim asked a Colombian “amiga” of mine the following:

¿Cuántos años tienes?
How old are you?

Yes, I know that a gentleman never asks and a woman never tells, but apparently Tim isn’t much of a “caballero” (gentleman).

But he certainly eats like a “caballo” (horse).

This was her response to Tim’s question:

“¿Cuántos (años) me pones?”

“¿Cuántos (años) me pones?” literally means “how many (years) do you place on me?

You will want to add this phrase to your Spanish vocabulary because in Latin America it is very common
response to the question:

¿Cuántos años tienes?
How old are you?

“¿Cuántos (años) me pones?”
“How many (years) do you place on me?”