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

Grammatical mood is the expression of modality, which describes 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 during the time of the utterance.
All forms of the subjunctive mood in English bear much resemblance to the corresponding kinds of the indicative mood. In fact, the subjunctive is only distinguishable in form from the indicative inside the third person singular present tense forms along with forms that want the verb be since the initial verb with the verb phrase. The following verb chart outlines the verb phrase patterns for the subjunctive mood:

The following chart provides examples with the subjunctive mood for that verb be, regular verbs, and irregular verbs. Note that the verbs highlighted in yellow differ completely from your indicative forms, the verbs highlighted in green differ only through the indicative forms within the third person singular, along with the verbs not highlighted are identical 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 serve as complete sentences. Many from the verb phrases inside the subjunctive mood in the previous examples start with the subordinating conjunction if. Noun clauses that commence with if will often 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, within 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, don't assume all dependent clauses that express possibility, necessity, and contingency commence with the subordinating conjunction if. For example, the boy not failing test was contingent on his studying as expressed in the sentence Had the boy been studying while he said, he would not have failed quality. The noun clause Had the boy been studying as he said is often a subordinate clause which contains the subjunctive mood. This noun clause may be written as If the boy have been studying because he said with the if introducing the clause. However, in English, the if in the if clause is easy to remove so long as the first auxiliary verb switches places with all 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 in a very verb phrase using 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 with the most common English verbs that take the subjunctive mood inside the following noun clause include:


Some of the most common English phrases that also go ahead and take subjunctive mood inside following noun clause include:

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

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


In the very first example, Beyonc?? uses the subjunctive mood from the verb be within the if clause If I were a boy. The use with the subjunctive in the clause If I were a boy expresses contingency; if Beyonc?? were male instead of female, she would perform things she lists. However, she actually is not male, so she uses the subjunctive to state an idea that is despite fact during the time of the statement. In the second example, however, Gwen Stefani uses the indicative form in the verb have place with the subjunctive form by 50 percent if clauses: If I would be a rich girl and if I was obviously a wealthy girl. She is still expressing uncertain modality (she would simply have all the money within the world in the event that she were rich) but utilizes a form in the verb which is identical on 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 they eats most of his vegetables before his dessert is expressing subjunctivity but is utilizing the indicative form from the verb (eats) instead of the subjunctive form (eat). The decline of the subjunctive in English is more apparent and inevitable given that about half from the subjunctive forms already are identical on the indicative forms. The subjunctive had been working is indistinguishable in form in the indicative had been working. In fact, using subjunctive forms is merely required within the most formal registers of English usage. Language change is inevitable, and many types of distinct subjunctive forms may soon disappear in the English language.
girls number for friendship info on other verb forms in English, please read the article The English Verb System for ESL Students.