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Doubt, Hope and Fear

The everyday emotional verbs that reach for the subjunctive automatically.

Beyond opinion (penso che), a whole family of emotion verbs also triggers congiuntivo: hoping, fearing, being surprised, being glad. If the feeling is about someone else's action, the subjunctive follows.

  • spero che — I hope that
  • ho paura che — I'm afraid that
  • sono felice che — I'm happy that
  • mi sorprende che — it surprises me that

Spero che tu stia bene.

I hope you're doing well.

One shortcut: if the subject of both verbs is the same person, skip che and the subjunctive entirely — use an infinitive instead. Spero di stare bene (I hope I'm well), not spero che io stia bene.

Vocabulary in this lesson

  • spero che

    I hope that

    Spero che tu venga.

  • ho paura che

    I'm afraid that

    Ho paura che sia troppo tardi.

  • mi dispiace che

    I'm sorry that

    Mi dispiace che tu sia triste.

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"Spero che tu venga" uses the subjunctive because…
When both verbs share the same subject, Italian often uses…

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