subjunctive

english, unlike spanish, does not have a seperate grammatical form for the subjunctive, so the concept is a bit esoteric for english speakers. a good way to get a grip on it is this: the subjunctive occurs when you are talking about something that might happen. this is often found in phrases as simple as “i want you to wash the car”. you might wash the car or you might not. annoyingly, in spanish you need to use a subjunctive form for ‘wash’ instead of the present tense. german or yiddish speakers, feeling the need for a subjunctive form will often fall back on a conditional tense instead, saying “i want you should wash the car”