The Spanish present subjunctive ( el presente de subjuntivo ) is used to talk about situations of doubt, desire, emotion, necessity, or uncertainty.
Unlike the present indicative, the present subjunctive is generally subjective . For specifics on when to use the subjunctive instead of the indicative, see our article on subjunctive vs. indicative.
To conjugate a verb in the present subjunctive, you must first remember what the present indicative yo form of the verb in question is. This is because the stem of present subjunctive verbs comes from the yo form of the present indicative. For many verbs, this will be the same as the infinitive stem, but for many others, such as verbs with spelling changes, stem-changing verbs, and irregular verbs, it will be different.
The formula for finding the present subjunctive stem of a verb is the following:
present subjunctive stem = yo form of present indicative minus o ending
Here are a few examples of present subjunctive stems.