¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?

I hope you are all very well and enjoying your Spanish studies. We are going to continue looking into the Spanish Subjunctive Present tense, today with sentences that include an indefinite pronoun or an indefinite adjective.

¿Qué es un pronombre indefinido? Words like “alguien” (someone), “algo” (something), nadie (nobody) and “nada” (nothing).

¿Qué es un adjetivo indefinido? Words like “algún/a” (some/any) and “ningún/a” (any in negative sentences).

Let´s start by looking at some questions in which we use the subjunctive with indefinite pronouns or adjectives. For example:

¿Hay alguien que hable español aquí?: Is there anyone here who speaks Spanish? – We use the subjunctive as the person who speaks Spanish is uncertain.

¿Hay algo para comer?: Is there anything to eat? – In this case, the food we have to eat is also uncertain.

Let´s see another example:

¿Hay alguna tarta que no tenga nata?: Is there any cake which doesn´t have cream?

We don´t only use the subjunctive with questions starting with “hay”.

You can use the verb “conocer”:

¿Conoces a alguien que se llame Antonio?: Do you know anybody called Antonio?

¿Conoces una ciudad que tenga más restaurantes?: Do you know a city which has more restaurants?

“Saber”:

¿Sabes si hay …?: Do you know if there is …?

¿Sabes si hay alguna fruta que contenga mucho calcio?: Do you know if there is any fruit that contains a lot of calcium?

“Tener”:

¿Tienes…?: Have you got…?

¿Tienes algún amigo que hable español?: Have you got any friend who speaks Spanish

Let´s see now some subjunctive negative sentences with indefinite pronouns and adjectives:

No hay nadie que escuche a los demás: There is nobody who listens to the others

No hay nada que me guste: There is nothing that I like

No hay ningún hotel donde pueda dormir esta noche: There is no hotel where I can sleep tonight.

We can also use the subjunctive with sentences that contain the words “poco”, “poca”, “pocos” or “pocas” and follow this structure:

Hay poco/a/os/as …: There are few…

Hay poca gente que quiera fumar aquí: There are few people who want to smoke here

Hay pocos lugares donde podamos ir sin coche: There are few places we can go without a car

This is all for today about the use of the Spanish subjunctive with indefinite pronouns and adjectives.  I hope you are clear on the different uses and recommend that you think of different situations where you could use these types of sentence and write down some practice examples. The more you repeat the structures, the quicker they will start to roll off your tongue naturally in conversation.

Que paséis una buena semana y hasta pronto,

¡Adiós!