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

Grammatical mood may be the expression of modality, which refers to possibility, necessity, and contingency. The subjunctive mood of verbs in English expresses commands, doubts, guesses, hypotheses, purposes, requests, suggestions, and wishes which can be contrary to fact at the time of the utterance.
All kinds of the subjunctive mood in English bear much resemblance to the corresponding kinds of the indicative mood. In fact, the subjunctive is just distinguishable in form in the indicative within the third person singular present tense forms along with forms that require the verb be because initial verb of 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 to the verb be, regular verbs, and irregular verbs. Note that the verbs highlighted in yellow differ completely through the indicative forms, the verbs highlighted in green differ only from the indicative forms inside the third person singular, and also the verbs not highlighted are similar to the indicative forms. The verb be and other alike intransitive verbs would 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 a topic and a predicate but cannot function as complete sentences. Many of the verb phrases inside the subjunctive mood within the previous examples start out 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 while travelling is contingent upon the driveway being resealed.
However, not every dependent clauses that express possibility, necessity, and contingency start with the subordinating conjunction if. For example, the boy not failing test was contingent on his studying as expressed inside sentence Had the boy been studying because he said, although not have failed quality. The noun clause Had the boy been studying as he said girls whatsapp number can be a subordinate clause which has the subjunctive mood. This noun clause may be written as If the boy was studying as they said with an if introducing the clause. However, in English, the if of the if clause can be removed so long because first auxiliary verb switches places with all the subject. Therefore, the if clause If the driveway were being resealed is also written as Were the driveway being resealed without eliminating the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive mood also appears inside a verb phrase carrying out 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 take the subjunctive mood in the following noun clause include:


Some with the most common English phrases that also make subjunctive mood inside following noun clause include:

The conjugated verb phrase following 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 in the subjunctive mood. Take for example the subsequent two English song lyrics:


In the 1st example, Beyonc?? uses the subjunctive mood in the verb be inside the if clause If I were a boy. The use in the subjunctive inside the clause If I were a boy expresses contingency; if Beyonc?? were male as opposed to female, she would do the things she lists. However, she's not male, so she uses the subjunctive to convey an idea that is as opposed to fact before the statement. In the second example, however, Gwen Stefani uses the indicative form in the verb take place with the subjunctive form in 2 if clauses: If I was a rich girl if I was a wealthy girl. She is still expressing uncertain modality (she would have only all the money in the world within the event that she were rich) but uses a form of the verb that is identical for the indicative.

Many native English speakers similarly use indicative forms to express the subjunctive mood. For example, a speaker who says His parents insist that he eats every one of his vegetables before his dessert is expressing subjunctivity but is applying the indicative form of the verb (eats) instead of the subjunctive form (eat). The decline of the subjunctive in English is even more apparent and inevitable given that about half of the subjunctive forms are already identical towards the indicative forms. The subjunctive had been working is indistinguishable in form in the indicative have been working. In fact, the application of subjunctive forms is required inside most formal registers of English usage. Language change is inevitable, and many types of distinct subjunctive forms may soon disappear through the English language.
For facts about other verb forms in English, please browse the article The English Verb System for ESL Students.