What is the subjunctive and why is it moody? A Distinguished Editor answers these questions and decides that any report of the subjunctive’s death is merely wishful thinking.
Well, the subjunctive really is easy. You just read the title of this blog post, and you understood it. You probably didn’t bat an eyelid at the ‘it were’ construction. It’s this ‘it were’ that makes my title an example of the ‘subjunctive’.
If I’d written ‘if only it was easy’, I would have meant ‘in the past’. ‘Was’ is the past ‘tense’ (time) of the infinitive verb1 ‘to be’ when used with the pronouns I, she, he and it. So, ‘I was’, ‘she was’, ‘he was’ and ‘it was’ all refer to a time in the past.
However, ‘it were’ isn’t tense – it’s mood. It’s what the person:
- feels
- hopes
- suggests
- wishes
- demands
- guesses.
The subjunctive mood
English doesn’t have a special word for the subjunctive mood. Instead, we’ve had to make use of an existing word and use a form of it differently.
But why ‘were’? Why not use the basic form of the ‘being’ verb – ‘be’ (the infinitive without ‘to’) – like we do with other verbs?2
Well, it sounds awkward to say, in modern English, ‘if only it be easy’.
A long time ago, language experts decided to use ‘were’ for all subjunctives of the ‘being’ verb ‘be’. So when we mean something a person or other entity guesses at, wishes or hopes for, and the like, we write sentences like those below.
Example
- I wish I were rich so that I could donate money to good causes.
[I’m not rich, but I wish …] - If John were at this meeting, he would agree.
[John apparently hasn’t turned up, but we hypothesise that he would agree.] - If the minister were to put that proposal next year, I think it might be accepted.
[We’re thinking ahead to things that might or might not happen.]
Other verbs
So what about other verbs besides the verb ‘to be’? The rule here is simpler. Use the basic form of the verb whenever you mean the subjunctive – for hoping, wishing, suggesting and so on. So we have sentences like those below.
Example
- I suggest Mary fly to Melbourne, rather than drive.
[These are the basic forms of the infinitive verbs ‘to fly’ and ‘to drive’. The past tenses would be ‘flew’ and ‘drove’, present tenses ‘flies’ and ‘drives’ and future tenses ‘will fly’ and ‘will drive’. But we don’t mean any of those tenses. We mean something hypothetical, unreal, not definite.] - The chair demanded the person chattering at the back of the room stop talking and sit down quietly.
[These are the basic forms of ‘to stop’ and ‘to sit’. They are subjunctive mood, not tense. The chair expects that their demands will be met, but that’s not a certainty.] - It is crucial he walk every day after his operation and we recommend that he exercise regularly too.
[These are the basic forms of ‘to walk’ and ‘to exercise’. They are subjunctive mood because they are recommendations, not certainties.]
Note also that the word ‘that’ can appear at the start of the subordinate clause3 containing the subjunctive verb.
Example
- It is crucial that he walk every day …
I don’t insist on ‘that’ if the meaning is perfectly clear without it. But be consistent.
Subjunctive survivors
There are some special expressions that have been handed down to us from Old English and have never changed.
Example
- Bless you!
[Short for ‘May (God) bless you’ – the full verb phrase being ‘may bless’.] - If, heaven forbid, it pours with rain, we’ll have to run indoors.
[May heaven (or ‘the gods’) not let it happen.] - Long live the King!
[Short for ‘May the King live a long time’ – ‘may live’ being the whole verb phrase.]
They are all expressions containing subjunctive verbs because they express a hope, doubt, demand, wish and so on.
And then there are some expressions with ‘be’ in a subordinate clause.
Example
- It is important that you be at this meeting.
- If it be true, then I’m amazed at the result of the experiment.
The future of the subjunctive
This leads me to my final point: is the subjunctive dying? According to some textbooks, it’s been dying for a long time. But it doesn’t look like it’s going away yet, and I believe it has its uses.
The alternative is to use modal verbs4 like ‘should’ or ‘would’ with ‘be’. Or to use the regular present or past tense of other verbs.
Example
- It is important that you should be at the meeting.
- If it is true, then I am amazed at the outcome of the experiment.
- It is crucial that he walks every day.
Our language is changing all the time, so perhaps you won’t have to read about the subjunctive for much longer! If it were my choice, I’d keep it, though.
Long live the Subjunctive!
Notes
1 Verbs have several forms including the infinitive form (to be, to sit).
2 A simple way we can describe verbs is to divide them into ‘doing’ (action) verbs or ‘being’ verbs. Doing verbs express an action performed by a person or other entity. Being verbs express the person’s or other entity’s state, or what they experience or feel.
(I jump over puddles [doing]. She loves her new motorbike [doing]. They seemed friendly [being].)
‘To be’ is a being verb. But in the subjunctive mood, it takes a different form from those taken by doing verbs and other being verbs.
3 In most sentences, a subordinate clause depends on the main clause to make sense. Unlike main clauses, subordinate clauses can’t stand alone as a sentence. In the example, ‘I drink cocoa before I go to bed,’ ‘I drink cocoa’ is the main clause. It can stand alone as a sentence. The subordinate clause is ‘before I go to bed’, which is a sentence fragment. It only makes sense when it appears with the main clause.
4 A modal verb (or ‘modal auxiliary verb’) forms part of a verb phrase that refers to potential events rather than to actual events. Besides ‘should’ and ‘would’, some other modal verbs are ‘can’, ‘may’, ‘might’, ‘could’ and ‘must’.
References
Seely J (2020) Oxford a–z of grammar and punctuation, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Tredinnick M (2008) The little green grammar book, UNSW Press, Sydney.
Elizabeth Manning Murphy DE was appointed a Distinguished Editor by the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) in 2008. In 2020, she was awarded IPEd’s inaugural Janet Mackenzie Medal in recognition of her contribution to the editing profession. Elizabeth is the author of several works about writing and grammar. These include the books Working words (2nd edn, 2019) and Effective writing: plain English at work (2nd edn, 2014).
Elizabeth thanks Leanne Manthorpe for reviewing and contributing to this blog post.