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I just learend the conditional and past subjunctive. Here is an example:
If I had a million dollars, I would buy a big house.
Si tuviera un millón dolares, compraría una casa grande.
So I'm just wondering how I would say it in present tense. A friend told me this:
If I have a million dollars, I will buy a big house.
Si tengo un millón dolares, compraré una casa grande.
If she is correct, why is it tengo instead of tenga? Aren't we expressing uncertainty/doubt here?
Thank you!
Your friend is correct and both statements are correctly translated in the quesitons. I can't tell you why (as in historically where these things came from) the subjunctive is not used in your "present tense" example. I can give you some more examples and rules about the subjunctive in this case.
First, the subjunctive is used for expressing uncertainty or doubt, but only in certain cases. Here are some examples:
For some reason, an if/then sentence does not use the subjunctive for the present tense, only the past subjunctive in a contrary to fact situation. Again, I can't tell you "why", just that it doesn't fit into one of the categories of Spanish phrases that need the subjunctive.
The if/then sentences typically follow patterns where if you use a certain tense on one side, then you will use a predictable tense on the other side. Here are some examples of many of those:
So, there are lots of options with if/then sentences, but only the contrary to fact situations requires subjunctive (specifically past subjunctive), not the uncertainty or doubt in this construction.
I don't know if the English conditionals are taught or explained the same to native speakers, but when I learnt them there were three:
First conditional: If (present), (future):
If I win a million dollars, I will buy a big house.
Second conditional: If (simple past), (would + verb):
If I won a million dollars, I would buy a big house.
Third conditional: If (past perfect), (would have + past participle):
If I had won a million dollars, I would have bought a big house.
Well, in Spanish, we have basically the same cases, but since verbs are conjugated, it can be trickier:
First conditional: Si (presente), (futuro):
Si gano un millón de dólares, me compraré una casa grande.
Second conditional: Si (pretérito imperfecto de subjuntivo), (condicional):
Si ganara un millón de dólares, me compraría una casa grande.
Third conditional: Si (Pretérito pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo), (condicional perfecto):
Si hubiera ganado un millón de dólares, me habría comprado una casa grande.
So, in the case you are asking about, is just the first conditional. As others have pointed out, it sounds a bit strange, but maybe because of the verb tener. But we can mend it with a little addition:
Si (el año que viene) tengo un millón de dólares, me compraré una casa.
Because I'm a Spanish native speaker I don't exactly remember the grammatical explanation so I'll go my best of explaining how these two forms are used.
"Tenga" is some kind of a conditional form, not present, for example if I say:
Que tenga un millón de dólares no significa que sea multimillonario.
The fact that I have a million dollars does not mean I am a multimillionaire.
On the other hand I am not so sure about your example that says:
Si tengo un millón de dólares, compraré una casa grande.
In this case you are mixing up two tenses in a single sentence which I am pretty sure is not correct, at least not in this case.
Hope this helps.
Damn I'm not as good in grammar as I used to be.
But my best guess is "Si llegara a tener un millón de dólares, compraré una casa grande" which is a more elaborated form to express the plausibility to aquire a million dollar in a near future, then, I will do something with it.
In the first part, before the comma, you are implying that there is a chance for the subject to get the money, with no certainty in deed.
Then If the subject, would perform an action if the first part turns true, otherwise, that action won't happen at all.
Tuviese, Tuviera, tendría, are different forms to transform the verb tener (have) subjectively.
the auxiliary "entonces" is a form to denote that if the condition is met, then something will happen. (Just like a simple if.. then)
The trick here is how to conjugate the verbs correctly to imply the future or next action to perform.
I hope I didn't mess it more than already is.
Cheers Oscar
Very simple, because 'tengo' is 'I have' in present whereas 'tenga' is used when speaking of hypothetical circumstances such as 'if I had', for example:
Si tengo diez pesos, me lo compro = If I have ten pesos, I'll buy it
Cuando tenga diez pesos, me lo compro = When I get/have ten pesos, I'll buy it
