I recently signed off a letter to a friend:

"¡Que te vaya todo muy bien!" Test: why does that use a subjunctive?

The answer (as explained in the video above, watch it first!):

"¡Que te vaya todo muy bien!" (‘Hope everything goes well’) uses the subjunctive because of what is missing before the ‘que’… "Espero que te vaya todo muy bien" would be the full version, and "espero que" takes the subjunctive as it is expressing a desire.

Sorry, bit of a trick question, but that’s a very common usage, where Spanish speakers leave out the ‘espero’ bit when wishing someone something, for example good luck ("¡Que tengas suerte!").

Note, in these cases, the ‘Qué’ has an accent as it is a short exclamation phrase. (Oops! Sorry! After further research, we stand corrected, this is not so in this case.)

Do you know any other short Spanish subjunctive phrases like this, with Que + subjunctive?

(Note: Apologies for the unsavory language in this recording. Luckily it’s not half as bad as the examples used in the bonus ‘private lesson’ audio that comes with Real Spanish Control!)