Do any Spanish speaking rationalists use subjunctive tenses? I've had the sense for a while that it's necessary for when you're expressing unfocused uncertainty or a strong emotional attachment to a belief or opinion, but that most of the time you can get by just fine with indicative tenses only. You can express uncertainty as a factual statement about how certain you are of a claim's accuracy. You can express strong emotions by making a factual statement about how you feel about something.
Then again, maybe it takes more words to do it that way. But surely emotions can be gleaned well enough from context and tone without using subjunctive tenses. Other languages such as English don't have any subjunctive tenses at all and that doesn't seem to cause any communication difficulties. (Although I could be wrong since English is my first langauge.)
Rationalists have better tools for focusing uncertainty and being more aware of one's emotions and learning to avoid investing one's emotions in their beliefs too much because there's always a chance they might be wrong. Basically I'm wondering if that causes Spanish speaking rationalists to reduce or eliminate their use of subjunctive tenses.
Thoughts?
Edit: someone pointed out that English does have subjunctive tenses and I just didn't notice it. Now I'm wondering if the use of subjunctive tenses is less clear cut than a quick google search can explain. I thought it was just for expressing emotions and uncertainty (which you can technically still do in indicative). But it might also be necessary for politeness or speaking courteously to others. ("Would you like something to drink?" is subjunctive right? And "Do you want something to drink" is indicative?)
The subjunctive tense is (if I remember correctly) used in all subordinate clauses. For example, look at the phrase “Es 50% probable que el libro sea rojo,” translating to “(It) is 50% probably that the book is red.” “Sea” is the present subjunctive form of “ser,” which means “to be.”
I used google translate on this, but as it is a simple sentence it should be accurate. I only have a few years of Spanish education so I’m not fluent or anything, but I am fairly confident this example holds.
Your example is right, but it's not true that it's used in all subordinate clauses. For example, "Estoy buscando a la persona que escribió ese libro" (I'm looking for the person who wrote that book) does not have any verb in subjunctive mood.
Do any Spanish speaking rationalists use subjunctive tenses? I've had the sense for a while that it's necessary for when you're expressing unfocused uncertainty or a strong emotional attachment to a belief or opinion, but that most of the time you can get by just fine with indicative tenses only. You can express uncertainty as a factual statement about how certain you are of a claim's accuracy. You can express strong emotions by making a factual statement about how you feel about something.
Then again, maybe it takes more words to do it that way. But surely emotions can be gleaned well enough from context and tone without using subjunctive tenses. Other languages such as English don't have any subjunctive tenses at all and that doesn't seem to cause any communication difficulties. (Although I could be wrong since English is my first langauge.)
Rationalists have better tools for focusing uncertainty and being more aware of one's emotions and learning to avoid investing one's emotions in their beliefs too much because there's always a chance they might be wrong. Basically I'm wondering if that causes Spanish speaking rationalists to reduce or eliminate their use of subjunctive tenses.
Thoughts?
Edit: someone pointed out that English does have subjunctive tenses and I just didn't notice it. Now I'm wondering if the use of subjunctive tenses is less clear cut than a quick google search can explain. I thought it was just for expressing emotions and uncertainty (which you can technically still do in indicative). But it might also be necessary for politeness or speaking courteously to others. ("Would you like something to drink?" is subjunctive right? And "Do you want something to drink" is indicative?)