Subjunctive Mood

What is the subjunctive mood?

The subjunctive mood is used to express verbs that describe hypothetical or non-real actions, events or situations. In contrast to the indicative mood, which is used to express factual, non-hypothetical information. The subjunctive mood is commonly used to express wishes, commands, suggestions, requests, or statements of necessity, or to describe hypothetical outcomes that depend on certain conditions.

Using the Subjunctive Mood

In English, verbs do not have different forms to express the subjunctive mood. Instead, they are conjugated differently depending on the intended meaning.

Expressing Wishes

To express a wish for something to be true, the verb is conjugated one degree into the past to create the subjunctive mood. For example:

• Indicative mood: “It’s Monday. I have to go to work.”
• Subjunctive mood: “I wish it weren’t* Monday. I wish I didn’t have to go to work.”

(*Conventionally, the verb be always conjugates to were in the subjunctive mood, regardless of whether it refers to a singular or plural noun. However, it has become common in modern English to conjugate be to was when it has a singular subject.)

See the full section on Expressing Wishes to learn more about conjugating wishes in different tenses.

Expressing Commands, Suggestions, Requests, and Statements of Necessity

When expressing actions that are demanded, suggested, or requested of someone else, or describing something that must be the case, the base form of the verb is used, which is the infinitive form without the word “to”.

For example:

• “He demanded that they leave the room at once.” (command)
• “I recommend that she study harder next time.” (suggestion)
• “I ask that the audience be completely silent during the demonstration.” (request)
• “It’s necessary that we be vigilant to avoid another disaster.” (statement of necessity)

The main difference between the subjunctive and indicative mood in this case is that the verb does not change depending on who is taking the action. For example, in the subjunctive it would be “she study”, “the audience is”, and “we are”, while in the indicative it would be “she studies”, “the audience is” and “we are”.
It is important to note that when making direct demands using imperative sentences (e.g “Do your homework!” or “Please close the window.”), we are not using the subjunctive mood, instead, we are using the imperative mood.

Conditional Sentences

Conditional sentences are used to describe hypothetical scenarios that require certain conditions to be met. They use the conditional mood and are generally constructed using “if” to identify the conditions that need to be fulfilled. There are four degrees of conditionals, all of which have different structures and meanings. A brief overview of the different conditionals will be provided below, for more information on how they are formed and used, see the section on Conditional Sentences.

Zero Conditional

The zero conditional is used to describe something that is generally true and the outcome of the condition and the result are always true. This type of conditional is formed using the present simple tense in both the “if” clause and the “main” clause. Example: If the water boils, it turns into steam.

First Conditional

The first conditional is very similar in structure to the zero conditional, except that we now use the future simple tense (will + bare infinitive) to describe a probable or intended result of the condition. For example:

• “If I see him, I will tell him.”
• “If I win the lottery, I will buy a new house.”

Second Conditional

The second conditional, also known as the “unreal conditional”, is used to speak about hypothetical situations or outcomes that result from a certain condition. Unlike the zero conditional, this type of conditional is generally used to talk about things that cannot or are less likely to happen. The second conditional is formed by using the past simple tense in the “if” clause and the conditional form of the verb in the main clause. Example: If I won the lottery, I would buy a house.

To create the second conditional, we use the past simple tense after the if clause, followed by would, could or might + the bare infinitive for the result of the condition. For example:

• “If you had a phone, you could call me every day.”
• “If I were older, I might stay up all night long.”

Third Conditional

Third conditionals, also known as the past hypothetical conditionals, are used to establish a hypothetical situation in the past, followed by an outcome that did not actually happen. Typically, the outcome is the opposite of what really occurred. The third conditional is formed by using the past perfect tense in the “if” clause and would + have + past participle in the main clause. Example: If I had studied harder, I would have passed the exam.

We use the past perfect tense for the if conditional clause, and would/could/should/might have + the past participle of the verb for the hypothetical outcome.