subjunctive jugar

Hola Marcia M.

Thank you for your great question! You're absolutely right to point out that jugar is a verb ending in -gar, and just like other -gar verbs such as llegar, pagar and entregar, it undergoes a spelling change in the present subjunctive: the g becomes gu before an e to preserve the hard “g” sound.

In your example sentence — "Me sorprende que ustedes ______ al dominó." — we need the present subjunctive form because the verb sorprender expresses emotion or surprise, which triggers the subjunctive mood.

The correct conjugation here is jueguen (from jugar, 3rd person plural, present subjunctive). So, the complete sentence would be:
"Me sorprende que ustedes jueguen al dominó."

This spelling change occurs in all present subjunctive forms of jugar:

• yo juegue

• tú juegues

• él/ella/usted juegue

• nosotros juguemos

• vosotros juguéis

• ellos/ustedes jueguen

This is a great example of how Spanish spelling rules help preserve pronunciation and it’s wonderful to see your close attention to those details.

Let us know if you have any more questions!

Saludos

Silvia