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Subjunctive Mood

The subjunctive mood in English is used to express hypothetical or imaginary situations, such as wishes, suggestions, or necessary conditions that are contrary to fact. While the subjunctive mood can be tricky for many speakers and writers, it is a useful construct in the language. The tense of the subjunctive verb does not change even if the tense of an accompanying verb is changed.

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207 views

Subjunctive Mood

The subjunctive mood in English is used to express hypothetical or imaginary situations, such as wishes, suggestions, or necessary conditions that are contrary to fact. While the subjunctive mood can be tricky for many speakers and writers, it is a useful construct in the language. The tense of the subjunctive verb does not change even if the tense of an accompanying verb is changed.

Uploaded by

ledrac
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Subjunctive mood

In English, the subjunctive mood is used to explore conditional or imaginary situations. It can be tricky to use, which partially explains why many speakers and writers forgo it. But its quite useful (and aesthetically pleasing, at least to us), and careful users of English should do their part to preserve it.

Uses of the subjunctive mood


The subjunctive mood is used to explore conditions that are contrary to fact: If I were President, I wouldnt put up with it. [National Review] Its used to explore hypotheticals: If I were to embroider a sampler, it would say, Simple is truly best in Frytown. [ Z Wire] Its used to express wishes: I wish I were there to have a drink with you and dish. [Ebar] Its used to express commands or demands: She demanded that he leave the hospital premises [Salem News] Its used to express suggestions: I suggest that he implement a budget cut in March. [Daily Gleaner] Its used to make statements of necessity: Its essential that they be heard [Alternet]

Subjunctive mood and verb tense


Since statements in the subjunctive mood exist outside time, tense applies differently. In the last four subjunctive mood examples above, the tenses of the indicative verbs (wish, demanded, suggest, is) could change, and the subjunctive verb indicating the imagined action (were, leave, implement, be) would not changefor example: I wished I were there to have a drink with you and dish. She will demand that he leave the hospital premises. I suggested that he implement a budget cut in March. It will be essential that they be heard. With subjunctive if constructions, things get trickier. In these statements, there is no concrete action, so there is no real tense. However, we still categorize them in terms of when the imagined action would take place. For instance, the first of the above subjunctive mood examples is in the present subjunctive. The future subjunctive would look like this: If I were to become President in 20 years, I wouldnt put up with it.

Of course, this begins to stretch the subjunctive mood beyond necessity, which is why the future subjunctive is rarely used. In this case, it would be much easier to use the indicative mood: If I become President in 20 years, I wont put up with it. In the past subjunctive mood, the verb tense of the imagined action does change for example: If I had been President, I wouldnt have put up with it. If youre confused by the subjunctive mood, dont worry too much. As with all grammar and usage matters, the rules for subjunctive mood are based on centuries of convention. Theres no deeper reason; it just is what it is. But the subjunctive mood is useful, and it would be a shame if it were to go away.

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