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 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 during the utterance.
All varieties of the subjunctive mood in English bear much resemblance to the corresponding types of the indicative mood. In fact, the subjunctive is just distinguishable in form from the indicative inside third person singular present tense forms plus forms that require the verb be since the initial verb of the verb phrase. The following verb chart outlines the verb phrase patterns for your subjunctive mood:

The following chart provides examples from the subjunctive mood for your 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 from the indicative forms in the third person singular, as well as the verbs not highlighted are the same to the indicative forms. The verb be and other alike intransitive verbs don't have subjunctive passive forms.





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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 serve as complete sentences. Many with the verb phrases within the subjunctive mood within the previous examples start with the subordinating conjunction if. Noun clauses that commence with if are often referred to as if clauses. The subjunctive mood in English most often appears in if clauses because such clauses always express possibility, necessity, and contingency. For example, in the sentence If the driveway were being resealed, then I would park traveling, my parking while travelling is contingent upon the driveway being resealed.
However, not all dependent clauses that express possibility, necessity, and contingency start out 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 while he said, although not have failed quality. The noun clause Had the boy been studying as they said can be a subordinate clause made up of the subjunctive mood. This noun clause may be written as If the boy had been studying as they said by having an if introducing the clause. However, in English, the if in the if clause can be taken off so long as the first auxiliary verb switches places using the subject. Therefore, the if clause If the driveway were being resealed you may also have written as Were the driveway being resealed without eliminating the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive mood also appears in a very 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 of the most common English verbs that go ahead and take subjunctive mood in the following noun clause include:


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

The conjugated verb phrase after a modal verb can be always inside a present subjunctive form.

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


In the very first example, Beyonc?? uses the subjunctive mood in the verb be within the if clause If I were a boy. The use from the subjunctive within the clause If I were a boy expresses contingency; if Beyonc?? were male as an alternative to female, she would perform the things she lists. However, she is not male, so she uses the subjunctive to express an idea that is unlike fact at the time of the statement. In the second example, however, Gwen Stefani uses the indicative form from the verb take place in the subjunctive form in 2 if clauses: If Mobile Numbers Girls I was a rich girl if I would be a wealthy girl. She is still expressing uncertain modality (she would just have all the money within the world inside event that she were rich) but utilizes a form with the verb that is identical towards the indicative.

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