Puzzled as to why you use the subjunctive

Question

Like Alan, I was puzzled by the use of the subjunctive in some of your examples, particularly this one:

"Coge un par de plátanos, los que estén más maduros" - because to me it seemed that the speaker had indeed noticed that some of the bananas were riper than others. Maybe it makes sense, though, if s/he had not yet seen them - but in this latter case s/he would probably have said: "Coge un par de plátanos, preferentemente dos que estén más maduros" - [is that correct?]

I can understand the use of the subjunctive when it is referring to the future - e.g., your sentence-example which begins: Quienes lleguen… [because it is not yet known who will reach the top first].

Accepted Answer

Hola David, 
In this sentence using the subjunctive (not the indicative):
"Coge un par de plátanos, los que estén más maduros" 
we have to assume that the speaker is not looking at the fruit bowl, he/she is thinking that there are some bananas, some of them may be ripe some of them not; so he/she is simply telling someone to grab a couple (those who may be ripe). If he/she had been saying this precise sentence looking at the bowl and spotting a couple of bananas that are clearly ripe, then he/she would have said "... los que están más maduros (those over there that I can see now are ripe)"
Here is a lesson on relative clauses using indicative and subjunctive:
Subordinate relative clauses with indicative or subjunctive
I hope this helps,
Saludos
Inma

Answer

Thank you Inma !