Bill, a reader of this blog, writes:

I am writing to ask if you offer short stories that are designed to expose students of the Spanish language to the usage of the many and varied subjunctive “triggers”.  I am aware that there are many books out there on the subjunctive, but I’m not interested in seeing examples of the use of the subjunctive in a bunch of sentences that are completely unrelated to one another.  Rather, I would like to see something like a short story that consciously uses a lot of different subjunctive triggers, but it does so in the context of an integrated story that mixes together the indicative mood and the subjunctive mood.  That way, I would be seeing the usage of the subjunctive in a more “normal” context, plus it would present the challenge of spotting the subjunctive usages and the associated verbs conjugated in the subjunctive.

We’re thinking similarly on this, Bill and I. Here’s my response:

Hi Bill,

You and I are thinking alike on getting students to acquire the subjunctive. It is best absorbed by understanding stories that use the subjunctive rather than studying about it. But because the subjunctive occurs so infrequently, many students will not absorb it within our limited course time, so specially crafted stories can help them.

Here are some materials I have developed that have helped my students:

• This unit on introducing the subjunctive with a story will help.  This storyline sets up subjunctive usage:

https://www.brycehedstrom.com/product/ebook-expressing-desire-teaching-the-subjunctive-1/

• This story and unit use the past subjunctive at a higher level:

https://www.brycehedstrom.com/product/ebook-el-cuento-tragico-de-mark/

• I have used Harry Potter to teach the subjunctive and I wrote this book to help with that:

https://www.brycehedstrom.com/product/ebook-read-harry-potter-in-spanish/

• This blog I wrote on El libro salvaje, by native Mexican author Juan Villoro will help you. There are more uses of the subjunctive in this novel than any other I have read. It was not crafted to teach the subjunctive, but it does a fine job of doing so. Advanced level 3 students that have been doing extensive reading with novellas like these since the beginning of level 1 will be able to understand much ot it.

https://www.brycehedstrom.com/2024/spanish-teachers-get-this-book/

Let me know what you think about these products. We can set up a brief Zoom meeting also to talk about it, if you wish.