Una questión para los qui hablan español

[alice]

How do the two forms of the past subjunctive differ in meaning or connotation for you - amase vs amara?

[Vijay]

*Una pregunta para los que hablan...

Are you looking for responses from native speakers specifically, or just anyone who speaks it?

[alice]

*Una pregunta para los que hablan...

Are you looking for responses from native speakers specifically, or just anyone who speaks it?

Ideally those who speak it better than me Well enough to use the past subjunctive every so often.

[Kuchigakatai]

How do the two forms of the past subjunctive differ in meaning or connotation for you - amase vs amara?

Most Latin American speakers very rarely use -se forms; they mostly survive only in Spain. Whenever I hear a Latin American use -se, it is usually because they want to sound lofty and poetic (because they've actually written a poem with it), or because they want to sound like they have a stick up their ass for laughs (i.e. they want to use unnecessarily formal language). Most Latin Americans don't know that -se is perfectly normal in Spain.

Note that in Spaniard Spanish, -se is not used for the polite imperfect subjunctive of "querer", as well as the present-tense unreal uses of the imperfect subjunctive of "deber" and "poder":

• Quisiera dos cervezas.
  'I want [to order] two beers.'
  (*Quisiese is not allowed here.)
• Debieras decirle.
  'You should tell her.'
  (*Debieses is not allowed here. Note that this is a more formal way of saying "Deberías decirle".)
• Pudieras dárselo.
  'You could give it to her.'
  (*Pudieses is not allowed here. Note that this is a more formal way of saying "Podrías dárselo".)

[Vijay]

I'm pretty sure I once had a Honduran classmate who used -se not only instead of -ra but also instead of the conditional.