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

Grammatical mood could be 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 are contrary to fact before the utterance.
All forms of the subjunctive mood in English bear resemblance to the corresponding kinds of the indicative mood. In fact, the subjunctive is just distinguishable in form from the indicative inside third person singular present tense forms and 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 that subjunctive mood:

The following chart provides examples from the subjunctive mood to the 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 in the third person singular, and the verbs not highlighted are identical to the indicative forms. The verb be and other intransitive verbs will 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 be complete sentences. Many in the verb phrases within the subjunctive mood inside previous examples start with the subordinating conjunction if. Noun clauses that start with if are often referred to as if clauses. The subjunctive mood in English normally 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 on the highway, my parking while travelling 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 test was contingent on his studying as expressed within the sentence Had the boy been studying as they said, he would not have failed the test. The noun clause Had the boy been studying because he said is a subordinate clause that contains the subjunctive mood. This noun clause could also be written as If the boy have been studying because he said by having an if introducing the clause. However, in English, the if from the if clause is easy to remove so long because the first auxiliary verb switches places with the subject. Therefore, the if clause If the driveway were being resealed may be written as Were the driveway being resealed without eliminating the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive mood also appears inside a 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 following noun clause include:


Some from the Dating girls most common English phrases that also consider the subjunctive mood inside the following noun clause include:

The conjugated verb phrase using a modal verb is also 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 the following two English song lyrics:


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

Many native English speakers similarly use indicative forms expressing the subjunctive mood. For example, a speaker who says His parents insist he eats all his vegetables before his dessert is expressing subjunctivity but is using the indicative form in the verb (eats) rather than the subjunctive form (eat). The decline with the subjunctive in English is a lot more apparent and inevitable given that about half of the subjunctive forms are actually identical on the indicative forms. The subjunctive had been working is indistinguishable in form through the indicative was working. In fact, the application of subjunctive forms is merely required inside most formal registers of English usage. Language change is inevitable, and distinct subjunctive forms may soon disappear from your English language.
For information on other verb forms in English, please look at article The English Verb System for ESL Students.