Las ramas de seguridad social cubiertas por el Reglamento 1408/71 y los ámbitos excluidos

In order to do many of the items in the exercises, this particular form of the subjunctive will now be presented, in case learners have never seen it or, if they have, by way of review, so that the usage of the conditional that it is used with may be recognized. Another simple name for the imperfect

subjunctive is the simple past subjunctive. It is a past tense of the subjunctive mood, and since it

consists of a one-word form, the qualifying term simple is used to distinguish it from compound forms— the present perfect subjunctive and the pluperfect subjunctive.

To form the imperfect subjunctive, begin with the third-person plural of the preterite (the ellos, ellas, ustedes form). For all verbs, simply remove -on and replace it with -a and begin conjugating again, using it as a new yo form, and adding the personal endings.

You may have learned or seen that there is an alternative form of the imperfect subjunctive that ends in -se. It is not used in this book, being somewhat more used in literary settings than in speaking in most regions. In any event, the rules for using this alternative form are the same, stylistic matters aside.

Generally, the irregular verbs in the preterite cause more problems than the irregular verbs in the present, because so many verbs have a new stem in the preterite that can’t be derived by any logical rules. However, once the new stems are known, the formation of the imperfect subjunctive is uniformly achieved in the following way (as described above): here we use tener as an example. First, the third- person plural of the preterite of tener is tuvieron; remove the -on and add -a, and then continue as shown below:

It should come as truly good news that this rule works perfectly for all three families of verbs, -ar, - er, and -ir, both regular and irregular, so that the imperfect subjunctive forms of hablar, comer, and vivir are all formed like the imperfect subjunctive of tener. If the formation of the imperfect

subjunctive is difficult for learners, it is almost always because they have not learned the preterite. If this is the case for you, refer to these paragraphs often as you do the exercises.

The second situation in which the conditional is used is when an indirect statement is introduced by a verb in a past tense. Within the indirect statement, the conditional expresses an action that was yet to occur, relative to the past point of reference established by the main verb, which inevitably is a verb about communicating. In this situation, the use of the conditional, in its relation to its main past tense verb, is parallel to the relationship between the future and a main verb in the present.

Observe the following sets of sentences. Note first how the verb in the indirect statement (the que- clause) changes tense, depending on the tense that introduces the indirect statement. Since the simple future can also be replaced with the periphrastic future, ir + a + infinitive, it is also valuable to notice that the use of the conditional in indirect statements in the past can be replaced with the imperfect of ir

+ a + infinitive, i.e., was or were going to. This too is an alternative in English, making this a little more good news for English-speaking learners of Spanish.

Indirect statement in the present

Indirect statements in the past

The third situation in which the conditional is used also parallels another peculiar function of the future tense in Spanish. Just as the future tense is used to express probability in the present, in the second of the following sentences, the conditional is used as a means to express probability in the past. (Notice also that the conditional is not the only way to show probability in the past, as shown by the final example sentence below. For the purposes of the exercises in this chapter, however, use the conditional when dealing with this situation.)

Probability in the present

Probability in the past

Finally, English-speaking learners of Spanish must be cautious whenever the English auxiliary verb would is employed. In English, there are four situations in which the modal verb would is used. English- speaking learners of Spanish need to be aware of them so that they can select the proper equivalent in Spanish.

As seen in this chapter, the first situation in which both English and Spanish employ the conditional, and in which the English usage of the modal verb would is identical to the Spanish usage of the

conditional is when there is an implied if-clause, which states a hypothesis. In this situation, the English would is rendered as the conditional in Spanish, to express the consequence of that hypothetical action expressed in the imperfect subjunctive.

For the second situation in which English uses would, the Spanish equivalent is not the conditional. Fortunately, this is one of the easiest situations to recognize. Learners need only reflect a moment before speaking or writing. If would is employed as an equivalent of used to + infinitive, it is used to refer to habitual or repeated past action and is rendered in Spanish by the imperfect indicative, not the conditional:

Thirdly, would is also used in English to express the future of the past in an indirect statement. In this situation, the conditional is employed in Spanish as a means to express the future from a point of reference in the past, as seen earlier:

The last use of the English modal would is found in its use as a subjunctive, appearing in a subordinated clause introduced by a past tense verb to express, for instance, what someone hoped someone else would do or what someone hoped something would be like. In this case, Spanish uses the imperfect subjunctive:

The use of the conditional to express probability in the past has no English equivalent involving the auxiliary verb would, and so this situation rarely causes confusion.