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Which of the following conjugations of viajar in my sentence is correct?

Espero que yo viajaré/viaje/viajaría a España.

I am focusing on Spanish from Spain.

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    Hey! Northern Spainiard here. The most natural way for me would be to say "espero viajar a España" :)
    – BrainOverflow
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 10:49
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    Howeeeever, i do not agree with the most voted answer! Saying "espero que yo viaje a España" also sounds right to me... Although, it slightly modifies the meaning putting emphasis on ME going there. Another example would be, "espero que yo sea el ganador". Hope it helps :)
    – BrainOverflow
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 10:52
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    @BrainOverflow: no native Spanish speaker will ever say "espero que yo viaje a España".
    – Martin Argerami
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 11:32
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    I cannot tell you with total certainty because there are several hundred million Spanish speakers covering many countries. But for whatever is worth I grew up in Argentina so my Spanish is about the farthest from that from Spain. Over a lifetime one listens to people from many countries so you get a feeling (which of course could be wrong in concrete cases) about how they talk in differentn places.
    – Martin Argerami
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 15:37
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    As a related note, "espero que viaje a España" is totally natural when talking about other people ("A Marcos le gusta el aceite de oliva, espero que viaje a España y pruebe el de allí")
    – Vinko Vrsalovic
    Commented Jul 29, 2022 at 7:09

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The correct one would be Espero viajar a España.

According to the Diccionario panhispánico de dudas

Cuando significa ‘tener esperanza [en que algo suceda] o creer que sucederá’, es transitivo y va seguido de un infinitivo o de una oración introducida por que: «Espero llegar a vieja sin arrugas» (Allende Eva [Chile 1987]); «Espero que todo te vaya bien» (Gala Invitados [Esp. 2002]).

This means that whenever the verb esperar means "to hope for [something to hapen] or believe that something would happen," you have to use the infinitive form.

Hope this helps!

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  • The conditional indicative is used to talk about hypothetical situations, however because I used the word "espero" it changes everything? :-(
    – securityauditor
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 22:37
  • It also expresses a desire or hope :D. So, in this case, you are not making a hypothesis about traveling to Spain, rather you are stating a wish or hope to do so.
    – Lilo
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 22:40
  • Espero does not introduce a hypothesis. For example, if you were to say "Podría viajar a españa si ahorro suficiente" (I could travel to Spain If I save enough), then you'd use the conditional (podría).
    – Lilo
    Commented Jul 27, 2022 at 22:46
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    Attention! What you say it is true when you are talking about yourself, if you change the person you need to use " Espero que tu madre VUELVA pronto", where the verb is on its subjunctive form.
    – R18
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 5:53
  • Note that your quote includes "o de una oración introducida por que", so this in itself is not enough to justify/explain your "you have to use the infinitive form".
    – Pablo H
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 18:20
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I guess anyone but depends on what you want to say. Actually, the literal translation is the correct one:

  • I hope to travel to Spain.

  • Espero viajar a España.

'Espero que yo viajare/viaje/viajaría a España' is incorrect in all the three options

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    Northern spainiard here. I do not agree with the second half of your answer. Although "espero viajar a ESP" sounds more natural to me, I would say sentences like "espero que yo viaje a ESP" or "espero que yo gane la competición" are absolutely correct :)
    – BrainOverflow
    Commented Jul 28, 2022 at 10:53
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At least in my (northern Spain) dialect the most natural way would be espero + INFINITIVE

  • espero viajar a España

However, at least in my dialect, it would also be perfectly fine to use espero + SUBJUNTIVE and not so uncommon to be honest...

  • espero que yo también viaje a España algun día
  • espero que yo gane la competición
  • espero que me traiga buenas noticias
  • espero que estéis de acuerdo conmigo en esto ;-)
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I think "espero que yo ..." sounds weird/unusual/jarring to us Spanish speakers because "yo" is also the speaker themselves, so they already know as much as possible about "yo". Same with "desear/ansiar/añorar": "deseo que yo viaje a España" ---> "deseo viajar a España". Perhaps for the same reason(s) we do not have first person imperative.

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Another opción is:

Espero (poder) viajar a España.

Here, poder is used to emphasize the posibility that it may not happen.

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