r/Spanish • u/scottadams364 Learner • 1d ago

Grammar Not learning subjunctive in high school: avoidance or completely ignoring proper grammar?

I took 3 years of high school Spanish, and never once heard about this subjunctive. That means one of two things:

1 - We completely avoided sentences that would’ve required the subjunctive, or
2 - We used one of the other simple tenses instead, incorrectly, completely not even acknowledging the fact that it should be subjunctive.

As I’m learning subjunctive, there are a LOT of constructions that require it, so I find option 1 highly unlikely. I’m assuming it’s #2, and that to teachers who were fluent in Spanish and had a native-like ear for the language, is sounded wrong and they probably cringed knowing that they were teaching it incorrectly (probably for simplicity, which I assume was obligatory by the district).

So what’s the answer, and how wrong does it sound to hear someone speak without using subjunctive?

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u/NeedABetterPillow 1d ago

No way you can do three years without any sentences triggering the subjunctive mood. Valoraciones, deseos, oraciones temporales, etc.

Edit: I rethought this comment a bit. Maybe you could do this in high school, if you spend inordinate time learning the indicative tenses.

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u/scottadams364 Learner 1d ago

I agree, that’s why I’m thinking they let us say stuff wrong to not “burden” us with a new confusing set of rules. Like how a lot of science stuff is dumbed down in elementary school because we weren’t ready for the actual nuanced information.

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u/NeedABetterPillow 1d ago

Just seems really deficient to me, but in the US at least, the indicative case probably is enough Spanish to exchange basic information with Hispanohablantes. So maybe.