English/Spanish Exchange

El hecho de que… indicative or subjunctive?

The general guidance given to learners of Spanish with regards to choosing between the indicative and subjunctive moods usually centres on the notion of the speaker’s model of reality: when dealing with certainties (from the speaker’s point of view), the indicative is used; whereas the subjunctive is normally used in situations involving factors such as uncertainty, denial, emotional reaction, desire, and influence.

This article looks at one particular example that appears to run counter to the above: namely the use of the subjunctive following el hecho de que where the phrase is used to state an objective fact and where no emotional reaction is involved.

Let’s start by taking a closer look at some typical descriptions of the general rules involved in the use of the subjunctive mood. We will then go on to take a look at so-called factive clauses and follow this up by examining the choice of mood in such clauses. This mentions previous investigation in this area and presents some observations based on a statistical analysis undertaken for this article.

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