At Marta’s Spanish Class, we love working with videos in class, and our students also really enjoy learning through short films 😉. In this post, we have chosen a little story about how things are not always what they seem. It’s an excellent video to practice purpose clauses with the subjunctive mood.
As you already know, the use of “para que” in Spanish implies a future, an objective, or a purpose regarding something or someone that is not yet “real,” something we are not certain about. Therefore, it is always accompanied by the subjunctive.
“Para que” is always followed by a verb in the subjunctive. For example: Ponte esa chaqueta para que no tengas frío (Put on that jacket so that you don’t get cold). We don’t say: Ponte esa chaqueta para que no tienes frío. .
“Para que” + present subjunctive. In general, we use it to express something happening in the present moment or in the future. For example: Te llamamos por teléfono para que vengas esta tarde a casa (We’ll call you on the phone so that you come to our house this evening).
“Para que” + imperfect subjunctive. We use it to express the same thing but in the past. For example, we say: Os di este dinero para que comprarais un coche.(I gave you this money so that you could buy a car).
However, there are two types of “para que”: PARA QUÉ / PARA QUE.
Consider these two examples:
¿Para qué quieres mi móvil? / – Necesito tu móvil para llamar a mis padres, el mío se ha quedado sin batería.
Me han llamado de la oficina para que vaya ahora mismo, parece que hay un problema con un cliente.
Therefore:
- We use PARA QUÉ (with an accent on qué) in interrogative sentences.
- We use PARA QUE with the subjunctive in sentences where we express the purpose of an action.
We hope you have learned a lot in this post. Here’s the video for you to practice this structure.
Until the next post!
Y aquí un ejercicio para repasar lo aprendido 😉