Coffee Break Spanish - Subjunctive or indicative after 'cuando' in Spanish? | A Coffee Break with Pablo

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

In this episode, we'll hear from Pablo from the Coffee Break Spanish team. This time, a Spanish proverb gives us the perfect opportunity to explore one of those classic Spanish grammar challenges: when to use the subjunctive vs. the indicative after the word cuando. Now, you definitely have a better understanding of this tricky topic and feel more confident using it in context.Keep improving your Spanish by exploring more content like this and receive free lessons directly in your inbox here. 🎯 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, hello, how you go? I'm sorry, I'm great. This is coffee break Spanish. I'm Pablo, and today it's my turn to join you for a little coffee break. Get ready because we're about to talk about a very useful word in Spanish. The word, when, and when to use it with the subjunctive. All right.

Basically, the other day, I was speaking to my colleague Annabel, and she was telling me that she had actually spotted a toad coming towards her in her own garden. Not exactly the kind of visitor you expect with your morning coffee, to be fair, but this automatically reminded me of a lovely Spanish saying, my grand says. When do you see a sapo Andar Agua primaveral Literally, when you see the toad walk

Spring water But what it means, in other words, is that when the toads come out, Spring is officially here. But again, what really caught my attention was the grammar. Of course, as a linguist, I can help these things. Sorry.

So pay attention to the structure When do you see asapo. When you see the toad, that little beas is a great example of the subjunctive in action. Beas is the second person singular of bear in the present

subjunctive, use singular C. So you may be wondering, why do we use the subjunctive after wheno in when do you're very good question indeed you'll be glad to know

that this is one of the more logical and predictable uses of the subjunctive we use the subjunctive right after when we are talking about an action that it's in the future before we see some examples

of Cuando followed by the subjunctive, you may want to revisit the subjunctive. For that, you can scroll down on this feed to Coffee Break Spanish Season 2, episodes 38 and 39, where we introduce the subjunctive and some of its uses.

There are also many videos covering the subjunctive on Coffee Break TV, our app and web platform. But let's see some examples of Cuando with Sugjunctive. now. When you getes a

house, mandame a message. So when you get a subjunctive, when you arrive home or when you get home, send me a message or a text message. Other example.

When the movie, we'll come we're palomitas. So when Empece, that's the subjunctive, the film starts,

we will eat popcorn. So, in both when I get home, and when the film starts, the action hasn't happened yet. We are talking about a future action. That's precisely when the present subjunctive with when

Quando steps in. But you may wonder, can we use when do when the indicative? Buena preunta, and the answer is si. Wheno can also be followed by the indicative.

For example, if the action that comes after wheno, it's something that happens regularly. or something that has already happened. In those cases, we use the indicative. For example, When do you get,

the fiesta se had terminated. So, when I arrived, that's the indicative, the predatory tense. The fiesta was finished. The party had finished. Another example. When

I go to a casa, I'm always very can's so when

when I get home, when I get home or when I arrive home

I'm always very tired. But this is something that happens regularly, so that's why we're using

the indicative. Let's do a little practice now. Can you translate the following sentences? When vallia al-supermarket I'll buy when I go to the supermarket I will buy X.

But notice how in the Spanish sentence at the beginning we're using Vaya from the verb ear in the presence of jenptive because this action hasn't happened. yet. When I go to the supermarket, I will buy X. I still haven't gone, but when I go, I'll do that. That's why we need the subjunctive after when. Let's do another one. When I go to the supermarket, I buy eggs. And here we're using boy, the present indicative, because it's a regular action.

that we do often, so we use the present indicative. When I go, I do that. So thanks to today's proverb, when you see al-sapo-andar, water, literally when you see the Toad walking, spring water, we know that we use the subjunctive after when the action is in the future

and hasn't happened yet. But remember that wheno is followed by the indicative, it the action that comes after has already happened or is a regular action. Perfecto. So that's all from me today. We've covered a little proverb, a sprinkle of grammar and a little practice. So I'm Pablo and I hope that you've enjoyed this. After bronto. And as always, happy coffee break. You have been listening to a coffee break Language is production for the Radiolingua Network. Copyright 2025 RadioLingo Limited. Recording copyright

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