Part 1 - THE MOODS AND ATTITUDES OF ENGLISH VERBSWhat is it about the subjunctive that gets not just a few English users, whether native or nonnative speakers, so intimidated and prone to error when using it?
The big culprit is that verbs in the singular third-person subjunctive form ignore this well-established English subject-verb agreement rule for verbs—to drop the “-s” or “-es” at their tail ends so it can take the base form of the verb, which is the infinitive form of the verb without the “to.”
So, contrary to what’s normally expected, the verb form in this subjective sentence is incorrect: “It is a must
that he submits himself to the jurisdiction of this court.” Instead, the verb’s correct verb form for that subjunctive sentence is this: “It is a must
that he submit himself to the jurisdiction of this court.”
On top of this break from the norm, there’s also this important and very instructive general rule for such subjunctive “that”-clauses:
their operative verbs don’t change form at all regardless of the number or person the subject takes. We will later discuss this in much greater detail, during which we will discover that the subjunctive actually acts in many more baffling ways. Indeed, to get a good grasp of these unusual subjunctive behaviors, we need to thoroughly reacquaint ourselves with the moods or attitudes of verbs in English.
Recall that English verbs have
three general moods, mood being that aspect of the verb that expresses the state of mind or attitude of the speaker toward what he or she is saying. These moods are
the indicative mood,
the imperative mood, and
the subjunctive mood.
Both the indicative and the imperative moods deal with actions or states in factual or real-world situations. In contrast, the subjunctive mood deals with actions or states only as possible, contingent, or conditional outcomes of a want, wish, preference, or uncertainty expressed by the speaker.
The indicative mood. The most familiar and most commonly used of the three moods, the indicative conveys the idea that an act or condition is (1)
an objective fact, (2)
an opinion, or (3)
the subject of a question. Indicative mood statements seek to give the impression that the speaker is talking about real-world situations in a straightforward, truthful manner. And from a usage standpoint, indicative statements have one very reassuring aspect: their operative verbs take their normal inflections in all the tenses and obey the subject-verb agreement rule at all times.
Here’s an indicative sentence stating an objective fact: “Most manufactured consumer products
are now being made in China.” Stating an opinion: “Our client
seems uninterested in the survey findings.” And posing a question: “
Who used my computer this morning?”
The imperative mood. This mood denotes that all-too-familiar attitude of a speaker who (1)
demands or orders a particular action, (2)
makes a request or suggestion, (3)
gives advice, or (4)
states a prohibition. This mood uses the base form of the operative verb (the verb’s infinitive form without the “to”), and is most often used in second-person, present-tense sentences that use an elliptical subject or the unstated second-person pronoun “you.”
Here’s an imperative statement demanding a particular action:
“Stop that car!” Making a request or suggestion:
“Please take your seats.” Giving advice:
“Study your lessons well to pass tomorrow’s test.” Stating a prohibition:
“Don’t enter this one-way street!”The subjunctive mood. It only has present-tense and past-tense forms, but the subjunctive actually has a more varied and complex grammatical repertoire than both the indicative and imperative. It takes several forms to perform these six tasks: (1)
indicate a possibility, (2)
express a desire or wishful attitude, (3)
express insistence on a particular action, (4)
express doubt about a certain outcome, (5)
describe an unreal situation or an idea contrary to fact, or (6)
express a request or suggestion.
We will discuss these functions in much greater detail next week.
This essay, 2,138th of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the February 6, 2023 digital edition of The Manila Times
, ©2023 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay in
The Manila Times:
Using the subjunctive more confidently - 1(Next:
Using the subjunctive more confidently - 2) February 23, 2023
Visit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
