How to Form the Subjunctive of English Verbs: Using amp; Declining the Subjeunctive Mood of Verbs

Grammatical mood is the expression of modality, which identifies possibility, necessity, and contingency. The subjunctive mood of verbs in English expresses commands, doubts, guesses, hypotheses, purposes, requests, suggestions, and wishes which might be contrary to fact at the time of the utterance.
All types of the subjunctive mood in English closely resemble the corresponding types of the indicative mood. In fact, the subjunctive is just distinguishable in form in the indicative within the third person singular present tense forms as well as in forms that need the verb be because the initial verb from the verb phrase. The following verb chart outlines the verb phrase patterns for the subjunctive mood:

The following chart provides examples of the subjunctive mood for that verb be, regular verbs, and irregular verbs. Note that the verbs highlighted in yellow differ completely in the indicative forms, the verbs highlighted in green differ only in the indicative forms inside the third person singular, as well as the verbs not highlighted are similar to the indicative forms. The verb be and similar intransitive verbs do not have subjunctive passive forms.

For example:




Unlike the indicative mood, the subjunctive mood often appears in subordinate clauses. Also known as dependent clauses, subordinate clauses contain both an interest and a predicate but cannot work as complete sentences. Many in the verb phrases within the subjunctive mood within the previous examples start with the subordinating conjunction if. Noun clauses that commence with if tend to be referred to as if clauses. The subjunctive mood in English most frequently appears in if clauses because such clauses always express possibility, necessity, and contingency. For example, inside the sentence If the driveway were being resealed, then I would park while travelling, my parking on the highway is contingent upon the driveway being resealed.
However, not every dependent clauses that express possibility, necessity, and contingency commence with the subordinating conjunction if. For example, the boy not failing quality was contingent on his studying as expressed inside the sentence Had the boy been studying because he said, however not have failed the exam. The noun clause Had the boy been studying as they said is really a subordinate clause which has the subjunctive mood. This noun clause you may also have written as If the boy was studying as they said with an if introducing the clause. However, in English, the if in the if clause is easy to remove so long because first auxiliary verb switches places with the subject. Therefore, the if clause If the driveway were being resealed could also be written as Were the driveway being resealed without eliminating the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive mood also appears inside a verb phrase after a modal verb.

In addition to appearing in if clauses, the subjunctive mood also follows certain verbs and phrases that express possibility, necessity, and contingency. For example, some from the most common English verbs that go ahead and take subjunctive mood within the following noun clause include:


Some in the most common English phrases that also consider the subjunctive mood within the following noun clause include:

The conjugated verb phrase carrying out a modal verb is additionally always in a very present subjunctive form.

Unlike in other contemporary Indo-European languages such as Spanish and German, modern English is quickly losing distinct verb forms within the subjunctive mood. Take for example these two English song lyrics:


In the first example, Beyonc?? uses the subjunctive mood from the verb be within the if clause If I were a boy. The use of the subjunctive in the clause If I were a boy expresses contingency; if Beyonc?? were male as an alternative to female, she would perform things she lists. However, she actually is not male, so she uses the subjunctive expressing an idea that is unlike fact during the statement. In the second example, however, Gwen Stefani uses the indicative form from the verb take place with the subjunctive form by 50 percent if clauses: If I would be a rich girl and when I was a wealthy girl. She is still expressing uncertain modality (she would have only all the money inside the world inside the event that she were rich) but runs on the form with the verb whatsapp numbers usa that is identical towards the indicative.

Many native English speakers similarly use indicative forms to convey the subjunctive mood. For example, a speaker who says His parents insist that he eats all his vegetables before his dessert is expressing subjunctivity but is utilizing the indicative form in the verb (eats) as opposed to the subjunctive form (eat). The decline with the subjunctive in English is more apparent and inevitable considering that about half from the subjunctive forms are already identical to the indicative forms. The subjunctive was working is indistinguishable in form from the indicative was working. In fact, the application of subjunctive forms is merely required inside the most formal registers of English usage. Language change is inevitable, and all sorts of distinct subjunctive forms may soon disappear from the English language.
For information on other verb forms in English, please read the article The English Verb System for ESL Students.