Professor Dave again, let’s compare subjunctive with the infinitive.
So we’ve learned quite a bit about the subjunctive mood at this point, with two tenses and plenty
of examples with conjunctions, so now we want to learn more about how to decide when to
use subjunctive, and when to use the infinitive.
The key difference here will have to do with the subjects of the two clauses.
We saw that when the subject of the main clause was different from the subject in the dependent
clause, we would use the subjunctive.
This would be something like: I wish that you would learn Italian.
But what about sentences where the subject is the same in both clauses?
This would be something like: I wish that I would learn Italian.
In this latter case, we will not use the subjunctive, but rather the infinitive.
Some verbs already have a preferred construction with the infinitive without a preposition
when the two subjects are the same.
But now the list of verbs that will use the infinitive will get much longer when we add
other verbs of emotion and opinion when they are involved in sentences with a dependent
clause that has the same subject as the main clause.
Let’s go over some examples of pairs of sentences where the only thing that changes
from the first to the next is the subject of the dependent clause.
In each first example, because it is different from the main subject, the subjunctive is
used, and in each second example, because the subjects are the same, the infinitive
is used.
So as we can see, when the two subjects coincide, Italian will use a simple construction of
di plus the infinitive.
Now let’s try some more.
In this first blank we can use che or di, and in the second blank we can either include
the second different subject or omit it, along with the correct form of the verb, to construct
a sentence.
For example, we have a main subject of la mamma.
We can make a sentence with the second subject, Carlo, or we can make one where the subject
does not change, and we will see the subjunctive change to the infinitive.
Now try this one on your own.
Include the second subject and use the subjunctive, and then take it away and use the infinitive.
Now that we are clear on the usage of subjunctive versus the infinitive, let’s check comprehension.