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The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that has not yet occurred; the precise situations in which they are used vary from language to language. The subjunctive is one of the irrealis moods, which refer to what is not necessarily real. It is often contrasted with the indicative, a realis mood which principally indicates that something is a statement of fact.
Subjunctives occur most often, although not exclusively, in subordinate clauses, particularly that-clauses. Examples of the subjunctive in English are found in the sentences "I suggest that you be careful" and "It is important that she stay by your side."
Indo-European languages
Proto-Indo-European
The Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, had two closely related moods: the subjunctive and the optative. Many of its daughter languages combined or merged these moods.
In Indo-European, the subjunctive was formed by using the full ablaut grade of the root of the verb and appending 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 counterfactual situations.
The optative mood was formed with a suffix *-ieh1 or *-ih1 (with a laryngeal). The optative used the clitic set[clarification needed] of secondary personal inflections. The optative was used to express wishes or hopes.
Among the Indo-European languages, only Albanian, Avestan, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit kept the subjunctive and the optative fully separate and parallel. However, in Sanskrit, use of the subjunctive is found only in the Vedic language of the earliest times, and the optative and imperative are comparatively less commonly used. In the later language (from c. 500 BC), the subjunctive fell out of use, with the optative or imperative being used instead, or merged with the optative as in Latin. 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.
Germanic languages
In the Germanic languages, subjunctives are also usually formed from old optatives (a mood that indicates a wish or hope), with the present subjunctive marked with *-ai- and the past with *-ī-. In German, these forms have been reduced to a schwa, spelled -e. The past tense, however, often displays i-umlaut. In Old Norse, both suffixes evolved into -i-, but i-umlaut occurs in the past subjunctive, which distinguishes them.[1]
| Present | Past | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Indicative | Subjunctive | Indicative | Subjunctive |
| 1st singular | gref | grafa | gróf | grœfa |
| 2nd singular | grefr | grafir | gróft | grœfir |
| 3rd singular | grefr | grafi | gróf | grœfi |
| 1st plural | grǫfum | grafim | grófum | grœfim |
| 2nd plural | grafið | grafið | grófuð | grœfið |
| 3rd plural | grafa | grafi | grófu | grœfi |
English
In Modern English, the subjunctive is realised as a finite but tenseless clause where the main verb occurs in the bare form. Since the bare form is also used in a variety of other constructions, the English subjunctive is reflected by a clause type rather than a distinct inflectional paradigm.[2]
German
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German has two forms of the subjunctive mood, namely Konjunktiv I (KI) 'present subjunctive' and Konjunktiv II (KII) 'past subjunctive'. Despite their English names, both German subjunctives can be used for past and present time.
Konjunktiv I
The present subjunctive occurs in certain expressions, (e.g. Es lebe der König! "Long live the king!") and in indirect (reported) speech. Its use can frequently be replaced by the indicative mood. For example, Er sagte, er sei Arzt ('He said he was a physician') is a neutral representation of what was said and makes no claim as to whether the speaker thinks the reported statement is true or not.
The past subjunctive can often be used to express the same sentiments: Er sagte, er wäre Arzt. Or, for example, instead of the formal, written Er sagte, er habe keine Zeit 'He said he had no time' with present subjunctive habe, one can use past subjunctive hätte: Er sagte, er hätte keine Zeit.
In speech, however, the past subjunctive is common without any implication that the speaker doubts the speech he is reporting. As common is use of the indicative Er sagte, er ist Arzt and Er sagte, er hat keine Zeit. This is often changed in written reports to the forms using present subjunctive.
The present subjunctive is completely regular for all verbs except the verb sein ("to be"). It is formed by adding -e, -est, -e, -en, -et, -en to the stem of the infinitive. The verb sein has the stem sei- for the present subjunctive declension, but it has no ending for the first and third person singular. While the use of present subjunctive for reported speech is formal and common in newspaper articles, its use in colloquial speech is in continual decline.
It is possible to express the subjunctive in various tenses, including the perfect (er sei da gewesen 'he has been there') and the future (er werde da sein 'he will be there'). For the preterite, which forms the Konjunktiv II with a somewhat other meaning, indirect speech has to switch to the perfect tense, so that: Er sagte: "Ich war da." becomes Er sagte, er sei da gewesen.
Konjunktiv II
The KII or past subjunctive is used to form the conditional tense and, on occasion, as a replacement for the present subjunctive when both indicative and subjunctive moods of a particular verb are indistinguishable.
Every German verb has a past subjunctive conjugation, but in spoken German the conditional is most commonly formed using würde (Konjunktiv II form of werden which in here is related to the English will or would rather than the literal to become; dialect: täte, KII of tun 'to do') with an infinitive. For example: An deiner Stelle würde ich ihm nicht helfen 'I would not help him if I were you'. In the example, the Konjunktiv II form of helfen (hülfe) is very unusual. However, using 'würde' instead of hätte (past subjunctive declension of haben 'to have') and wäre (past subjunctive declension of sein 'to be') can be perceived anywhere from awkward (in-the-present use of the past subjunctive) to incorrect (in the past subjunctive). There is a tendency to use the forms in würde rather in main clauses as in English; in subclauses even regular forms (which sound like the indicative of the preterite and are, thus, obsolete in any other circumstances) can still be heard.
Some verbs exist for which either construction can be used, such as with finden (fände) and tun (täte). Many dictionaries consider the past subjunctive declension of such verbs the only proper expression in formal written German.
The past subjunctive is declined from the stem of the preterite (imperfect) declension of the verb with the appropriate present subjunctive declension ending as appropriate. 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.
Dutch
Dutch has the same subjunctive tenses as German (described above), though they are rare in contemporary speech. The same two tenses as in German are sometimes considered a subjunctive mood (aanvoegende wijs) and sometimes conditional mood (voorwaardelijke wijs). In practice, potential subjunctive uses of verbs are difficult to differentiate from indicative uses. This is partly because the subjunctive mood has fallen together with the indicative mood:
- The plural of the subjunctive (both present and past) is always identical to the plural of the indicative. There are a few exceptions where the usage is clearly subjunctive, like: Mogen zij in vrede rusten (May they rest in peace); compare to singular: Moge hij/zij in vrede rusten (May he/she rest in peace).
- In the present tense, the singular form of the subjunctive differs from the indicative, having an extra -e. E.g., the subjunctive God zegene je, mijn kind (May God bless you, my child) differs from the indicative God zegent je, mijn kind (God blesses you, my child.)
- In the past tense, the singular form of the subjunctive of weak verbs (the vast majority of verbs) does not differ from the indicative at all, so that for those verbs there is no difference between indicative and subjunctive whatsoever in the past tense. Only for strong verbs, the preterite-present verbs and some irregular weak verbs does the past subjunctive differ from the past indicative, and only in the singular form. E.g., the subjunctive hadde, ware and mochte differ from the indicative "had", "was" and mocht ("had", "was" and "could").
Archaic and traditional phrases still contain the subjunctive mood:
- Men neme ... ("Take ..." - literally "one take ..." - as found in recipes)
- Uw naam worde geheiligd ("Thy name be hallowed" - from the Lord's Prayer)
- Geheiligd zij Uw naam ("Hallowed be thy name" - from the Lord's Prayer, as used in Belgium until 2016)
- Zo waarlijk helpe mij God almachtig ("So truly help me God almighty" - when swearing an oath)
- Godverdomme (now a common Dutch curse; originally a request to God to curse something)
- God zij dank ("Thanks be to God")
- Dankzij ... ("Thanks to ..." - literally "Thank be ...")
- Leve de koning ("Long live the king")
Luxembourgish
Luxembourgish has the same subjunctive tenses as German (described above). For the periphrasis however, géif is used instead of würde or (dialectal) täte.
Swedish
The subjunctive mood is very rarely used in modern Swedish and is limited to a few fixed expressions like leve kungen, "long live the king". Present subjunctive is formed by adding the -e ending to the stem of a verb:
Infinitive Present tense indicative Present tense subjunctive att tala, "to speak" talar, "speak(s)" tale, "may speak" att bli, "to become" blir, "become(s)" blive, "may become" (the -v- comes from the older form bliva) att skriva, "to write" skriver, "write(s)" skrive, "may write" att springa, "to run" springer, "run(s)" springe, "may run"
Infinitive Past tense indicative Supine indicative Past tense subjunctive att finnas, "to exist (be)" fanns, "existed (there was)" funnits, "has existed (there has been)" om det funnes tid, "if only there were time" (changes past tense -a- to supine -u-) att bli, "to become" blev, "became" blivit, "have/has become" om det bleve så, "if only it became so" (regular: just appends -e to the past tense) att skriva, "to write" skrev, "wrote" skrivit, "written" om jag skreve ett brev, "if I should write a letter" (regular: appends -e)
Latin and the Romance languages
Latin
The Latin subjunctive has many uses, contingent upon the nature of a clause within a sentence:[3]
Within independent clauses:
- Exhortation or command
- Concession
- Wish
- Question of doubt
- Possibility or contingency
Within dependent clauses:
- Condition
- Purpose
- Characteristic
- Result
- Time
- Indirect questions
Historically, the Latin subjunctive originates from the ancestral optative inflections, while some of the original subjunctive forms went on to compose the Latin future tense, especially in the Latin third conjugation.[citation needed] The *-i- of the old optative forms manifests itself in the fact that the Latin subjunctives typically have a high vowel even when the indicative mood has a lower vowel; for example, Latin rogamus, "we ask", in the indicative mood, corresponds to the subjunctive rogemus, "let us ask", where e is a higher vowel than a.
| Conjugation | 1st | 2nd | 3rd[4] | 3rdIO | 4th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st singular | rogem | habeam | curram | excipiam | veniam |
| 2nd singular | roges | habeas | curras | excipias | venias |
| 3rd singular | roget | habeat | currat | excipiat | veniat |
| 1st plural | rogemus | habeamus | curramus | excipiamus | veniamus |
| 2nd plural | rogetis | habeatis | curratis | excipiatis | veniatis |
| 3rd plural | rogent | habeant | currant | excipiant | veniant |
The subjunctive mood retains a highly distinct form for nearly all verbs in Portuguese, Spanish and Italian (among other Romance 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, says, 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 us go" in French is Allons-y. In addition, 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 am old, I feel young"; French: Bien que je sois vieux, je me sens jeune.
In Spanish, phrases with words like lo que (that which, what), quien (who), or donde (where) and subjunctive verb forms are often translated to English with some variation of "whatever" or sometimes an indefinite pronoun. Spanish lo que sea, which is, by a literal interpretation, along the lines of "the thing which is", is translated as English "whatever" or "anything"; similarly, Spanish donde sea is English "wherever" and Spanish quien sea is English "whoever". For example, Spanish lo que quieras, literally "that which you want", is translated as English "whatever you may want"; Spanish cueste lo que cueste is translated to English as "whatever it may cost"; and Spanish donde vayas, voy is translated to English as "wherever you go, I go". The acronym W.E.I.R.D.O, is commonly used by students of Spanish to learn the subjunctive. It usually stands for Wish Emotion Impersional Expressions Reccomendations Doubt Ojalá. With the exception of negative commands, the subjunctive is always activated in the second clause, when a situation of "W.E.I.R.D.O" is present.
French
Present and past subjunctives
The subjunctive is used mostly with verbs or adverbs expressing desire, doubt or eventuality; it may also express an order. It is almost always preceded by the conjunction que (that).
Use of the subjunctive is in many respects similar to English:
- Jussive (issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting): Il faut qu’il comprenne cela ("It is necessary that he understand that")
- Desiderative: Vive la république! ("Long live the republic!")
Sometimes it is 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") (although English does introduce a similar subjunctive element in an alternative: "It might be my birthday, but I am working"
- Avant que je ne m’en aille ("Before I go away")
| English | French | |
|---|---|---|
| It is important that she speak. (subjunctive) | Il est important qu'elle parle | |
| That the book pleases you does not surprise me. (indicative) | Que le livre te plaise ne me surprend pas. | |
| present subjunctive | ||
French uses a past subjunctive, equivalent in tense to the passé composé in the indicative mood, called "passé du subjonctif". It is the only other subjunctive tense used in modern-day conversational French. It is formed with the auxiliary être or avoir and the past participle of the verb. Unlike other Romance languages, such as Spanish, it is not always necessary that the preceding clause be in the past to trigger the passé du subjonctif in the subordinate clause:
| English | French | |
|---|---|---|
| It is important that she have spoken. (subjunctive) | Il est important qu'elle ait parlé. | |
| That the book pleased you does not surprise me. (indicative) | Que le livre t'ait plu ne me surprend pas. | |
| past subjunctive | ||
Imperfect and pluperfect subjunctives
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 (including in the French conditional, which is morphologically a future-in-the-past):