Question about the Spanish imperfect subjunctive.?

Question

In Spanish class we are learning the imperfect subjunctive (If I was able to.../Si lo pudiera...; If you had seen it.../Si lo hubieras visto...etc). I had been aware of this tense before, but in my family (Cuban-American) I have always heard another form being spoken. Instead of "Si lo pudiera..", "Si lo pudiese.." is said. I asked my teacher about this and she said that "-ese-" imp. subj. was an archaic literary form never used in speech, yet here are all my relatives using it in day-to-day talk. Does anyone else know about spoken usage of this supposedly "archaic" tense, and why it would have been retained in Cuba's dialect? (preferably other Cuban-Americans?)

I'm well aware it's a mood (not mode), i just thought the average person would understand the word tense better because that is the more common expression on verb conjugations...and it is called the imperfect subjunctive, there is no Past Subjunctive, and my grammer text will back me up.

Answer 1

The Spanish speaking world is large and there are many variations. Just tell your teacher that your Cuban relatives use the old form.

Answer 2

First off, subjunctive is the mood. Spanish has three tenses in the subjunctive mood. Future tense, which is almost extinct, present tense, and imperfect tense, the last called past tense by some. There are two ways to form the imperfect - "se" and "ra". Both are still alive and well. The "se" seems to be more common in Spain and less common in the New World, but I've heard both.

Answer 3

First: There is not "imperfect subjuntive", since it's a Mode and not a tense. Your sentences refer to Past subjuntive.

It's perfectly acceptable to use both variations. All the "era" are equivalent to "ese". They are not archaic, though more frequently use in written language, rahter than spoken.

So, your Cuban relatives are OK

Answer 4

in these pages you can find the conjugation of spanish verbs, you can see that both forms -era, -ese are correct and are both used, here in Spain we use both forms, -ese is not archaic, belive me I'm Spanish and at school we study both forms and are used in daily speech.