me encontrara

Question

Hi Inma,I know that the answer for;No voy a ir a esa fiesta, por si acaso ________ con Davidis 'me encontrara' (not 'me encuentre') because it is subjunctive imperfect but is the future subjunctive not used in this case because the sentence is conditional?Thank you

Accepted Answer

Hola G
The only two options given in the answers are:
me encontrara 
me encuentre
In the lesson we say that with "por si acaso" you can either use El Presente indicativo (that would be "me encuentro" in this sentence) if the speaker sees this as a probable thing to happen, or El Imperfecto subjuntivo (that would be "me encontrara" in this sentence) if the speaker sees it as a less probable thing to happen,  but we can't use El Presente subjuntivo (me encuentre)- so that leaves you with just one possible correct answer from the two that we gave: "me encontrara". The other one is the wrong tense.
Saludos

Answer

Hola G
The future subjunctive is a tense that is no longer used in Spanish; it is pretty much obsolete and only found in old literature; their endings are similar to the imperfect subjunctive (-ra,-ras, -ra...):
-re, -res, -re (future subjunctive endings)
I imagine what you mean is that we could still use the present indicative in this sentence because we have a main clause that refers to a future action? The answer is yes, we could have also used the present indicative here:
No voy a ir a esa fiesta, por si acaso me encuentro con David.
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Thanks Inma. Yes I mean't future subj. because I've seen it in conj. tables, but it's good to know I can ditch it.

I think what I should have asked is;

why is the present subjunctive 'me encuentre' (the other option given for the answer) wrong? Is it a question of probability?

Sorry...I'm just stuck on this one?