Subjunctive mood

Introduction

The subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a grammatical mood of the verb that expresses wishes, commands (in subordinate clauses), emotion, possibility, judgment, necessity and statements that are contrary to fact.

File:OscarMayer.png

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener is a famous advertising jingle that uses a verb in the subjunctive mood.

Indo-European

The reconstructed Proto Indo-European language is the hypothetical parent of many language families. These include Germanic languages (including English), Latinate Romance languages, Slavic languages and several others. It has two closely related moods: the subjunctive and the optative. Many of its daughter languages combined or confounded these moods.

In Indo-European, the subjunctive was formed by using the full ablaut grade of the root of the verb, and adding the thematic vowel *-e- or *-o- to the root stem, with the full, primary set of personal inflections. The subjunctive was the Indo-European irrealis, used for hypothetical or contrary to fact situations.

The optative mood was formed with a suffix *-ieh₁ or *-ih₁ (with a laryngeal). The optative used the clitic set of secondary personal inflections. The optative was used to express wishes or hopes.

Among the Indo-European languages, only Greek, Sanskrit, and to some extent Old Church Slavonic kept the subjunctive and optative fully separate and parallel. However, in Sanskrit, use of the subjunctive is only found in the Vedic language of earliest times, and the optative and imperative are in comparison less commonly used. In the later language (from c.500BC), the subjunctive falls out of use, with the optative or imperative being used instead. However, the first person forms of the subjunctive continue to be used, as they are transferred to the imperative, which formerly, like Greek, had no first person forms.

Latin and the Romance languages

The Latin subjunctive is mostly made of optative forms, while some of the original subjunctive forms went to make the Latin future tense, especially in the Latin third conjugation. In Latin, the *-i- of the old optative manifests itself in the fact that the Latin subjunctives typically have a high vowel even when the indicative mood has a lower vowel; Latin rogamus, "we ask", makes a subjunctive rogemus, "let us ask."

The subjunctive mood retains a highly distinct form for nearly all verbs in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian (among other Latin languages), and for a number of verbs in French. All of these languages inherit their subjunctive from Latin, where the subjunctive mood combines both forms and usages from a number of original Indo-European inflection sets, including the original subjunctive and the optative mood.

In many cases, the Romance languages use the subjunctive in the same ways that English does; however, they use them in other ways as well. For example, English generally uses the auxiliary may or let to form desiderative expressions, such as "Let it snow." The Romance languages use the subjunctive for these; French, for example, would say, "Qu'il neige" and "Qu'ils vivent jusqu'à leur vieillesse." (However, in the case of the first-person plural, these languages have imperative forms: "Let's go" in French is "Allons-y.") Also, the Romance languages tend to use the subjunctive in various kinds of subordinate clauses, such as those introduced by words meaning although (English: "Although I'm old, I feel young"; French: Bien que je sois vieux, je me sens jeune.)

Germanic languages

In the Germanic languages, subjunctives are also usually formed from old optatives. In German, subjunctives are typically marked with an -e ending, and often with i-umlaut, showing once more the presence of the *-i- suffix that is the mark of the old optative. In Old Norse, an -i typically marks the subjunctive; grefr, "he digs", becomes grafi, "let him dig". While most of the signs of this suffix have been removed in Modern English, the change from was to were in the modern English subjunctive of to be also marks addition of a vowel sound to the subjunctive form, and as such represents an echo of the Indo-European optative marker of five thousand years ago.

The subjunctive in English

Form

The form of the subjunctive in Modern English is only distinguishable from the indicative in three circumstances:

1. in the third person singular of the present indicative (excluding modal verbs),
2. with the verb “to be” in the present tense, and
3. in the first person singular and third person singular of verb “to be” in the past tense.

Other than the verb "to be", the past subjunctive was distinguishable from the past indicative in Early Modern English in the second person singular. For example: indicative thou sattest, but subjunctive thou sat.

In some texts that use the pronoun thou, a final -est or -st is sometimes added; for example, "thou beest" appears frequently in the work of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries.

	Present indicative	Present subjunctive	Past indicative	Past subjunctive
to own (regular verb)	I own he/she/it owns we own you own they own	I own he/she/it own we own you own they own	I owned he/she/it owned we owned you owned they owned	I owned he/she/it owned we owned you owned they owned
to be	I am he/she/it is we are you are they are	I be he/she/it be we be you be they be	I was he/she/it was we were you were they were	I were he/she/it were we were you were they were

Present and past subjunctive

The terms present subjunctive and past subjunctive can be misleading, as they describe forms rather than meanings: the past and present subjunctives are so called because they resemble the past and present indicatives, respectively, but the difference between them is a modal one, not a temporal one.

For example, in "I asked that it be done yesterday", be done (a present subjunctive) has no present-tense sense; and likewise, in "If that were true, I'd know it", were (a past subjunctive) has no past-tense sense.

The pluperfect subjunctive

Like most verb forms in English, the past subjunctive has a perfect aspect form, known as the past perfect subjunctive or pluperfect subjunctive. A verb's pluperfect subjunctive is formed using had (the past subjunctive of to have) plus the verb's past participle.

The pluperfect subjunctive is used like the past subjunctive, except that it expresses a past-tense sense. So, for example:

• If I had known (yesterday), I would have done something about it.
• If I had seen you, I would definitely have said hello.
• I wouldn't be here if he hadn't helped me.

If a clause is in a past tense, then a clause subordinate to it cannot be in the past subjunctive, though it might be in the pluperfect subjunctive; however, if it is in a present tense, then a clause subordinate to it might be in either of the two, depending on meaning.

All that said, the pluperfect subjunctive is often replaced with the past subjunctive in colloquial speech, a substitution that is commonly considered incorrect. (See prescription and description.)

(Note that by contrast, the present perfect subjunctive — that he have done — while logically and theoretically possible, is not much used in modern English.)

Future subjunctive

A future subjunctive can be constructed using "were" plus the infinitive. For example:

• If I were to die tomorrow, you would inherit everything.
• If you were to give me the money, I would say no more about it.

Construction by inversion

Where the subjunctive is used after “if” to express doubt or improbability, the same effect can be achieved by omitting the “if” and inverting the verb and subject.

• If I were the President... / Were I the President...
• If he had a car with him... / Had he a car with him...
• Had we but world enough, and time ...(Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress)
• Come tomorrow, I will be on that plane.

Construction using a modal verb

The subjunctive mood can be expressed using the modal verbs shall (should) and may (might).

• I recommend that he (should) be taken away.
• (May) the Lord bless you and keep you.
• I put your dinner in the oven so that it (should) keep warm.
• He wrote it in his diary so that he (might) remember.

Usage

As well as being immortalised in fossil phrases, the subjunctive is used in English to express a command, desire, hypothesis, purpose, doubt or supposition.

Set phrases

The subjunctive is used in a number of fixed phrases, relics from an older form of the language where it was much more common. Common examples are:

• as it were
• if I were you
• be that as it may
• (God) bless you!
• come what may
• (God) damn it!
• far be it from (or for) me
• till death do us part
• God save our gracious Queen; long live our noble Queen.
• Heaven forfend/forbid
• so be it
• suffice it to say
• woe betide
• peace be with you
• long live the king

To express a command or desire

Verbs of command, desire or suggestion require a verb in a subordinate clause to be in the subjunctive. Such verbs include to propose, to suggest, to recommend, to move, to demand and to mandate, and phrases formed from them include it is imperative that, it is necessary that, and it is mandatory that.

It is important to note that the time reference of the sentence is conveyed by the tense of the main verb (usually in the indicative) rather than the subjunctive.

Thus the following examples refer to the present (with possible relevance to the future):

• I move that the bill be put to a vote.
• I demand that Napoleon surrender!
• It is necessary that the class be cancelled.
• I wish that Susan were here.
• I wish I were an Oscar Mayer weiner.

The following examples refer to the past (with possible relevance to the present):

• I moved that the bill be put to a vote.
• I demanded that Napoleon surrender!
• It was necessary that the class be cancelled.
• I wished that Susan were here.

Note, however, that the following are at worst ungrammatical and at best solecisms.

? I move that the bill were put to a vote.

? I moved that the bill were put to a vote.

? I demand that Napoleon surrendered!

? I demanded that Napoleon surrendered!

? It is necessary that the class were cancelled.

? It was necessary that the class were cancelled.

? I wish that Susan be here.

? I wished that Susan be here.

? I hope he be here.

? I hope he were here.

? I hoped he be here.

When the main verb of a sentence is in the subjunctive mood it carries the force of a third person request. This is the usage found in many set expressions, such as God bless you.

• America, America, God shed His grace on thee, and crown thy good with brotherhood (America the Beautiful)
• God save our gracious Queen

This use of the subjunctive is sometimes known as the "jussive" or "mandative" subjunctive.

To express a hypothesis

The past subjunctive is used after the conjunction if in a contrary-to-fact protasis. For example:

• If I were a millionaire, I would buy a sports car.
• *If I knew you were coming, I'd a baked a cake. (from an Andrews Sisters song)
• If he had a car with him, he could drive us there.
• If I were a rich man, ... There would be one long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down. (from Fiddler on the Roof)

In the same vein, the past subjunctive is used following the conjunctions as if and as though to express a contrary-to-fact situation that reality is supposed to resemble:

• She looked as though she were going to kill him, but after glaring for a bit, she just stormed off.
• He tried to explain it — as if he knew anything about the subject!

As seen in the second of these examples, these constructions are often used derisively.

Note that the past subjunctive is sometimes used in expressing situations that are not necessarily contrary to fact:

• ? I'm torn; if I were to go with choice A, I'd be better off in the short term, but if I were to go with choice B, I might be better off in the long term.
• ? Bring an umbrella; looks as if it were going to rain soon.

However, such uses are not universal, and are often regarded as ungrammatical. [1]

To express a purpose

The present subjunctive is used following the conjunction lest to express a negative possibility, and (so) that to express positive purpose.

• I eat lest I die.
• I'll place the book back on the shelf, lest it get lost.
• I put your dinner in the oven so that it keep warm.
• He wrote it in his diary so that he remember.

To express a doubt or supposition

The subjunctive is sometimes used after other conjunctions to express doubt or supposition, although this usage is nowadays more often replaced by the Indicative.

• I will not let thee go, except [=unless] thou bless me. (Old Testament)
• Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak.
• Whoever he be, he shall not go unpunished.
• But [=although] he were dead, yet shall he live. (New Testament)

Hypercorrect usage

The subjunctive has sometimes been used simply as a conditioned variant that follows "if" and similar words even in the absence of a hypothetical situation.

• Johnny asked me if I were afraid. (Barbara in Night of the Living Dead (1968))

In the example quoted, "if" is a substitute for the unambiguous word "whether" ("Johnny asked me whether I was afraid"), and lacks the usual, "in the event that" meaning that it has in other usage such as "If we go to bed now, we'll be up at three o'clock".

Demise of the subjunctive?

In many dialects of English, the indicative can take the place of the subjunctive, although this is sometimes considered erroneous in formal or educated speech and writing.

• If I was the President...
• If he was a ghost...

However, in the context of the examples above, inversion cannot occur with the indicative as it would with the subjunctive.

• * Was I the President...
• * Was he a ghost...

Furthermore, many of the fossil phrases are often wrongly analyzed as imperative forms rather than as the subjunctive.

W. Somerset Maugham said that "The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible".

H.W. Fowler said that "Subjunctives met with today, outside the few truly living uses, are either deliberate revivals by poets for legitimate enough archaic effect, or antiquated survivals as in pretentious journalism, inflecting their context with dullness, or new arrivals possible only in an age to which the grammar of the subjunctive is not natural but artificial."On the other hand, an alternative view is that the subjunctive mood remains an ordinary working feature of English grammar, but that it is called moribund because it is often indistinguishable from the ordinary present and past indicative.

The subjunctive is not uniform in all varieties of spoken English. However it is preserved in speech, at least, in North American English, and in many dialects of British English. While some dialects replace it with the indicative or construct it using a modal verb (except perhaps in the most formal literary discourse) the reports of its demise have been exaggerated.

Further Reading

Hardie, Ronald G. (1990). "English Grammar". Harper Collins. ISBN 0-00-458349-3

Sylvia Chalker (1995). "Dictionary of English Grammar". Oxford Uni Press. ISBN 0-19-860055-0

Fowler, H. W. (1926). "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage". Oxford Uni Press.

Nesfield, J. C. (1939). "Manual of English Grammar and Composition". Macmillan.

The subjunctive in German

In German it is generally accepted that there are two subjunctives - Konjunktiv I (present subjunctive) and Konjunktiv II (past subjunctive), both of which can be expressed in (almost) all tenses.

The Konjunktiv I is used to express indirect (reported) speech. For example:

Er sagte mir, er sei nicht bereit. — He told me that he wasn't ready.

Es wurde gesagt, er habe keine Zeit für sowas. — I've heard that he has no time for this kind of thing.

The Konjunktiv I for regular verbs in German is formed by adding -e, -est, -e, -en, -et, -en to the stem. The verb sein (to be) deviates somewhat from this rule, producing ich sei; du seiest; er sei; wir seien; ihr seiet; sie seien. While the use of Konjunktiv I for reported speech is considered "correct" German, its use in colloquial speech is in continual decline.

It is possible to express the Konjunktiv I in various tenses, including the present (er sei da gewesen) and the future (er werde da sein) although the latter is rarely used. The Konjunktiv I in the imperfect and conditional does exist, but they are identical to their indicative equivalents and are not worth considering in day-to-day communication.

The Konjunktiv II is used to form the conditional tense and, on occasion, as a replacement for the Konjunktiv I when both indicative and subjunctive moods of a particular verb are indistinguishable. Although every verb in the German language can be expressed in the Konjunktiv II, only a small number are actually used in this mood in colloquial speech, such as sein (ich wäre). The most common method of forming the conditional in German is to render the verb werden (to become) in the Konjunktiv II form and append the infinitive of the action, as in An deiner Stelle würde ich das nicht tun (I wouldn't do that if I were you), as opposed to Das täte ich nicht, which, while also grammatically correct, is seldom used.

It is formed from the stem of the preterite (imperfect) form of the verb and appending the appropriate Konjunktiv I ending as appropriate, although in most regular verbs the final 'e' in the stem is dropped. In most cases, an umlaut is appended to the stem vowel if possible (i.e. if it is a, o, u or au), for example: ich war → ich wäre, ich brachte → ich brächte.

The use of werden for some conditional clauses and the Konjunktiv II for others can lead to a mix of the two in a single sentence.

See also German grammar.

The subjunctive in Dutch

Dutch has the same subjunctive tenses as German (described above), but they are used less commonly. The same two tenses as in German are sometimes considered subjunctive and sometimes conditional.

The subjunctive in French

In French, despite the deep phonetic changes that the language has undergone from the original Latin, which include the loss of many inflections in the spoken language, the subjunctive (le subjonctif) remains prominent, largely because the subjunctive forms of many common verbs are strongly marked phonetically; compare the indicative je sais (I know) and its subjunctive counterpart je sache. (However, the present indicatives and present subjunctives of most verbs are homonyms when they have singular subjects: j'aime (I like) is both the present indicative and the present subjunctive.)

Use of the subjunctive is in many respects similar to English:

• Jussive: Il faut qu'il comprenne ça.: "It is necessary that he understand this."
• Desiderative: Vive la reine!: "Long live the queen!"

But sometimes not:

• Desiderative: Que la lumière soit !: "Let there be light!"
• In certain subordinate clauses:
  • Bien que ce soit mon anniversaire... "Even though it is my birthday..."
  • Avant que je ne m'en aille... "Before I go..."

French also has an imperfect subjunctive, which in older, formal, or literary writing replaces the present subjunctive in a subordinate clause when the main clause is in a past tense:

• English: It was necessary that he speak (present subjunctive).
• Everyday modern French: Il était nécessaire qu'il parle (present subjunctive).
• Older, formal, or literary French: Il était nécessaire qu'il parlât (imperfect subjunctive).

Also in older, formal, or literary writing, the imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives double as a "second form" of the conditional and conditional perfect, in which case they are used in both the protasis and the apodosis:

• English: Had we known (pluperfect subjunctive), we could have prevented (conditional perfect) it.
• Everyday modern French: Si on l'avait su (pluperfect indicative), on aurait pu (conditional perfect) le prévenir.
• Older, formal, or literary French: L'eussions-nous su (conditional perfect, second form), nous l'eussions pu (conditional perfect, second form) prévenir.

In the French version of Dune, when talking to Dr. Yueh, Lady Jessica appropriately employs an imperfect subjunctive when saying: J'ignorais que vous eussiez tant de raisons de les haïr, reflecting the proper formality and correctness given her position.

For more on the subjunctive in French, see French verbs.

The subjunctive in Portuguese

In Portuguese, the subjunctive (subjuntivo) is used in conjunction with expressions of emotion, opinion, or viewpoint. It also is used to described situations that are considered unlikely or are in doubt, as well as for expressing disagreement, denial, or wishes, similarly to Spanish.

In Portuguese, the use of the subjunctive is similar to English:

• Jussive: É importante que ele comprenda isso.: "It is important that he understand this."
• Desiderative: Viva o rei!: "Long live the king!"

It also bears similarities to the use in French:

• Desiderative: Faça-se a luz! "Let there be light!"
• In certain subordinate clauses:
  • Ainda que seja meu aniversário... "Even though it is my birthday..."
  • Antes que (eu) vá... "Before (I) go..."

Portuguese differs from other Romance languages in its conservation of a future subjunctive (futuro do subjuntivo), which was once widespread in Spanish, but however now is only used in extremely formal government documents. This is used to express a condition that is likely to be fulfilled or will be. This form is identical to the personal infinitive, except with twelve irregular verbs; and even with these, the future subjunctive and personal infinitive have the same endings.

An example of this is someone (likely to be elected president) saying:

Se (eu) for eleito presidente, acabarei com a fome. "If (I) am elected president, I will end famine."

Compare this with:

Se (eu) fosse eleito presidente, acabaria com a fome. "If (I) were elected president, I would end famine."

Equally, someone talking about another could say:

Quando (tu) fores mais velho... "When (you) are older..."

Like English, Portuguese and Spanish use the imperfect subjunctive in hypotheticals after se and si ("if"), respectively. In such a case, the main clause is in the conditional mood.

• English: If I were (past subjunctive) the king, I would change (present conditional) the law.
• Portuguese: Se eu fosse (imperfect subjunctive) o rei, mudaria (present conditional) a lei.
• Spanish: Si yo fuese (imperfect subjunctive) el rey, cambiaría (present conditional) la ley.

• English: It is necessary that he speak (present subjunctive). → It was necessary that he speak (present subjunctive).
• Portuguese: É necessário que fale (present subjunctive). → Era necessário que falasse (imperfect subjunctive).
• Spanish: Es necesario que hable (present subjunctive). → Era necesario que hablara (imperfect subjunctive).

The subjunctive in Spanish

In Spanish, the subjunctive (subjuntivo) is used in conjunction with expressions of emotion, opinion, or viewpoint. It is also used to describe situations that are considered unlikely or are in doubt, as well as for expressing disagreement, denial, or wishes.

There are many common expressions that commonly introduce subjunctive clauses. Examples include:

• Es una lástima que "It's a shame that"
• Es bueno que "It's good that..."
• Es horroroso que "It's horrible that..."

Spanish has two past subjunctive forms. They are almost identical, except that where the "first form" has -ra-, the "second form" has -se-. The second form is a literary, somewhat archaic tense, and is not used in everyday speech; however, it can be found frequently in literature, poetry, and other writings.

Spanish used to have a future subjunctive tense, but it is now all but extinct. It is never heard in everyday speech, and is usually reserved for literature, archaic phrases and expressions, and legal documents. Phrases expressing the subjunctive in a future time-frame instead employ the present subjunctive. For example: "I hope it will rain tomorrow" would simply be "Espero que mañana llueva" (where llueva is the third-person singular present subjunctive of llover, "to rain").

The subjunctive in Arabic

In Literary Arabic the verb in its imperfective aspect (almudāri‘) has a subjunctive form called the mansūb form. It is distinct from the indicative in either ending in -a or dropping the final n:

• 3 sing. masc. yaktubu "he writes / is writing / will write" → yaktuba "he may / should write"
• 3 plur. masc. yaktubūna → yaktubū

The subjunctive is used in that-clauses, after Arabic an: urīdu an aktuba "I want to write". However in conditional and precative sentences, such as "if he goes" or "let him go", a different form of the imperfective aspect, the jussive, majzūm, is used.

In many spoken Arabic dialects there remains a distinction between indicative and subjunctive, but there it is not through endings but a prefix. In Levantine Arabic, the indicative has b- while the subjunctive lacks it:

• 3 sing. masc. huwwe byuktob "he writes / is writing / will write" → yuktob "he may / should write"
• 3 plur. masc. homme byukotbu → yukotbu

Egyptian Arabic has a similar prefix bi-, while Moroccan Arabic uses ka- or ta-.

The subjunctive in Hebrew

Final vowels disappeared from Hebrew in prehistoric times, so the distinction between indicative, subjunctive and jussive is nearly totally blurred even in Biblical Hebrew. A few relics remain for roots with a medial or final semivowel, such as yaqūm "he rises / will rise" versus yaqom "may he rise" and yihye "he will be" versus yehi "let him be". In modern Hebrew the situation has been carried even further, with the falling into disuse of forms like yaqom and yehi. In the precative sense, modern Hebrew speakers often prepend the conjunction she- ("that") to mark the verb: hu yavo "he will come" → sheyavo "let him come." The subjunctive of the verb likhyot ("to live"), however, is still used in the expression y'khi ___ ("long live ___").

External links

• Introduction to the Subjunctive (as it relates to Spanish)
• Learn Spanish Verbs and practice conjugating the Subjunctive mood with this free Spanish verb trainer. All Tenses, All Moods.