Do you need the subjunctive twice?

Alice O.C1Kwiziq community member

Do you need the subjunctive twice?

Can you sometimes omit the first subjunctive and just use e.g lo que sea instead of sea lo que sea ? Ive read some texts online and they don't seem to write the full version, does it have slightly different nuance/meaning?


Asked 3 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Alice

Without seeing exactly what you've seen written, in context, it's a bit difficult to answer, but I imagine you may have seen something like this, for example,

- Lo que sea, el caso es que yo no te creo para nada.

This, for example, could be a reaction to someone giving excuses about having done something wrong, and another person reacts saying something like that. This "lo que sea" here would mean "Whatever" as well, but it's more like a set expression, pretty much meaning "I don't care about what you just said".

Another example could be:

- Puedes confiar en mí y pídeme lo que te haga falta, lo que sea. 

Here we are dropping it but you could have also said "sea lo que sea" with the same meaning. So, yes, we do drop it sometimes if what we mean is "whatever it is". 

Saludos

Inma

Do you need the subjunctive twice?

Can you sometimes omit the first subjunctive and just use e.g lo que sea instead of sea lo que sea ? Ive read some texts online and they don't seem to write the full version, does it have slightly different nuance/meaning?


Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
Getting that for you now...