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The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of are typically used to express various states of truth value, 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 , 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 content clause. 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."
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 theory). 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 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 mood 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.
| + Old Norse active paradigm (set of rules) for the verb ("to dig") ! ! colspan="2" | Present ! colspan="2" | Past |
If the Konjunktiv II of the Futur I (e.g. "ich würde gehen") and of the Futur II (e.g. "ich würde gegangen sein") are called "conditional", the numbers (I, II) can be dropped.
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 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 apparently 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.
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 Germanic 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.
Archaic and traditional phrases still contain the subjunctive mood:
Within independent clauses:
Within dependent clauses:
Historically, the Latin subjunctive originates from the ancestral Optative mood, while some of the original subjunctive forms went on to compose the Latin future tense, especially in the Latin third conjugation. 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.
| +Latin present subjunctive forms |
The subjunctive mood retains a highly distinct form for nearly all verbs in Portuguese, Spanish language and Italian language (among other Romance languages), and for a number of verbs in French language. 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, e.g. 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 English-speaking students of Spanish to learn the subjunctive. It usually stands for Wish Emotion Impersonal Expressions Recommendations 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.
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 ().
Use of the subjunctive is in many respects similar to English:
Sometimes it is not:
| 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:
| 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 |
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):
| It was necessary that he speak | Il était nécessaire qu’il parle | Il était nécessaire qu’il parlât |
| I feared that he act so. | Je craignais qu'il agisse ainsi | Je craignais qu'il agît ainsi |
| I would want him to do it. | Je voudrais qu’il le fasse | Je voudrais qu’il le fît |
| present subjunctive | imperfect subjunctive |
Similarly, pluperfect subjunctive replace past subjunctive in same context:
| It was necessary that you have spoken | Il était nécessaire que tu aies parlé | Il était nécessaire que tu eusses parlé |
| I regretted that you had acted so. | Je regrettais que tu aies agi ainsi | Je regrettais que tu eusses agi ainsi |
| I would have liked you to have done it. | J'aurais aimé que tu l'aies fait | J'aurais aimé que tu l'eusses fait |
| past subjunctive | pluperfect subjunctive |
The subjunctive is used mainly in subordinate clauses following a set phrase or conjunction, such as benché, senza che, prima che, or perché. It is also used with verbs of doubt, possibility and expressing an opinion or desire, for example with credo che, è possibile che and ritengo che, and sometimes with superlatives and virtual superlatives.
Differently from the French subjunctive, the Italian one is used after expressions like Penso che ("I think that"), where in French the indicative would be used. However, it is also possible to use the subjunctive after the expression Je ne pense pas que... ("I don't think that..."), and in questions like Penses-tu que... ("Do you think that..."), even though the indicative forms can be correct, too.
The present subjunctive is used in a range of situations in clauses taking the subjunctive.
The present subjunctive is used mostly in subordinate clauses, as in the examples above. However, exceptions include imperatives using the subjunctive (using the third person), and general statements of desire.
The imperfect subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses taking the subjunctive where the sense of the verb requires the imperfect.
The imperfect subjunctive is used in "if" clauses, where the main clause is in the conditional tense, as in English and German.
They are used in subordinate clauses which require the subjunctive, where the sense of the verb requires use of the perfect or pluperfect.
The subjunctive is used in conjunction with impersonal expressions and expressions of emotion, opinion, desire or viewpoint. More importantly, it applies to most hypothetical situations, likely or unlikely, desired or not. Normally, only certitude of (or statement of) a fact will remove the possibility of its use. Unlike French, it is also used in phrases expressing the past conditional. The negative of the imperative shares the same form with the present subjunctive.
Common introductions to the subjunctive would include the following:
Nevertheless, the subjunctive can stand alone to supplant other tenses.
For example, "I would like" can be said in the conditional Querría or in the past subjunctive Quisiera, as in Quisiera (past subjunctive) que vinieras (past subjunctive), i.e. "I would like you to come".
Comfort with the subjunctive form and the degree to which a second-language speaker attempts to avoid its use can be an indicator of the level of proficiency in the language. Complex use of the subjunctive is a constant pattern of everyday speech among native speakers but difficult to interiorize even by relatively proficient Spanish learners (e.g. I would have liked you to come on Thursday: Me habría gustado (conditional perfect) que vinieras (past subjunctive) el jueves.
An example of the subtlety of the Spanish subjunctive is the way the tense (past, present or future) modifies the expression "be it as it may" (literally "be what it be"):
The same alterations could be made to the expression Sea como sea or "no matter how" with similar changes in meaning.
Spanish has two past subjunctive forms. They are almost identical, except that where the "first form" has -ra-, the "second form" has -se-. Both forms are usually interchangeable although the -se- form may be more common in Spain than in other Spanish-speaking areas. The -ra- forms may also be used as an alternative to the conditional in certain structures.
Present subjunctive
In Spanish, a present subjunctive form is always different from the corresponding present indicative form. For example, whereas English "that they speak" or French qu'ils parlent can be either indicative or subjunctive, Spanish que hablen is unambiguously subjunctive. (The corresponding indicative would be que hablan.) The same is true for all verbs, regardless of their subject.
When to use:
Examples:
Past (imperfect) subjunctive
Used interchangeably, the past (imperfect) subjunctive can end either in -se or -ra. Both forms stem from the third-person plural ( ellos, ellas, ustedes) of the preterite. For example, the verb estar, when conjugated in the third-person plural of the preterite, becomes estuvieron. Then, drop the -ron ending, and add either -se or -ra. Thus, it becomes estuviese or estuviera. The past subjunctive may be used with "if... then" statements with the conditional mood. Example:
Future subjunctive
In Spanish, the future subjunctive tense is now rare but still used in certain dialects of Spanish and in formal speech. It is usually reserved for literature, archaism phrases and expressions, and legal documents. (The form is similar to the -ra form of the imperfect subjunctive, but with a -re ending instead of -ra, -res instead of -ras and so on.) Example:
Phrases expressing the subjunctive in a future period normally employ the present subjunctive. For example: "I hope that it will rain tomorrow" would simply be Espero que llueva mañana (where llueva is the third-person singular present subjunctive of llover, "to rain").
Pluperfect (past perfect) subjunctive
In Spanish, the pluperfect subjunctive tense is used to describe a continuing wish in the past. Desearía que (tú) hubieras ido al cine conmigo el viernes pasado. (I wish that you had gone to the movies with me last Friday). To form this tense, first the subjunctive form of haber is conjugated (in the example above, haber becomes hubieras). Then the participle of the main verb (in this case is added, ir becomes ido).
Though the -re form appears to be more closely related to the imperfect subjunctive -ra form than the -se form, that is not the case. The -se form of the imperfect subjunctive derives from the pluperfect subjunctive of Vulgar Latin and the -ra from the pluperfect indicative, combining to overtake the previous pluperfect subjunctive ending. The -re form is more complicated, stemming (so to speak) from a fusion of the perfect subjunctive and future perfect indicative—which, though in different moods, happened to be identical in the second and third persons—before losing the perfect in the shift to future subjunctive, the same perfect nature that was the only thing the forms originally shared. So the -ra and -se forms always had a past (to be specific, pluperfect) meaning, but only the -se form always belonged with the subjunctive mood that the -re form had since its emergence.
Present subjunctive
As in Spanish, the imperfect subjunctive is in vernacular use, and it is employed, among other things, to make the tense of a subordinate clause agree with the tense of the main clause:
The imperfect subjunctive is also used when the main clause is in the conditional:
There are authors who regard the conditional of Portuguese as a "future in the past" of the indicative mood, rather than as a separate mood; they call it futuro do pretérito ("future of the past"), especially in Brazil.
Future subjunctive
Portuguese differs from other Ibero-Romance languages in having retained the medieval future subjunctive ( futuro do subjuntivo), which is rarely used in Spanish and has been lost in other West Iberic languages. It expresses a condition that must be fulfilled in the future, or is assumed to be fulfilled, before an event can happen. Spanish and English will use the present tense in this type of clause.
For example, in conditional sentences whose main clause is in the conditional, Portuguese, Spanish and English employ the past tense in the subordinate clause. Nevertheless, if the main clause is in the future, Portuguese will employ the future subjunctive where English and Spanish use the present indicative. (English, when being used in a rigorously formal style, takes the present subjunctive in these situations, example: "Should I be, then...") Contrast the following two sentences.
The first situation is counterfactual; the listener knows that the speaker is not a king. However, the second statement expresses a promise about the future; the speaker may yet be elected president.
For a different example, a father speaking to his son might say:
The future subjunctive is identical in form to the personal infinitive in regular verbs, but they differ in some irregular verbs of frequent use. However, the possible differences between the two tenses are due only to stem changes. They always have the same endings.
The meaning of sentences can change by switching subjunctive and indicative:
Below, there is a table demonstrating subjunctive and conditional conjugation for regular verbs of the first paradigm (-ar), exemplified by falar (to speak) .
| falaria |
| falarias |
| falaria |
| falaríamos |
| falaríeis |
| falariam |
Compound verbs in subjunctive are necessary in more complex sentences, such as subordinate clauses with embedded perfective tenses e.g., perfective state in the future. To form compound subjunctives auxiliar verbs ( ter or haver) must conjugate to the respective subjunctive tense, while the main verbs must take their participles.
| haveria/teria falado |
| haverias/terias falado |
| haveria/teria falado |
| haveríamos/teríamos falado |
| haveríeis/teríeis falado |
| haveriam/teriam falado |
Present subjunctive
The present subjunctive is usually built in the 1st and 2nd person singular and plural by adding the conjunction să before the present indicative (indicative: am I have; conjunctive: să am (that) I have; indicative: vii you come; conjunctive: să vii (t/hat) you come). In the 3rd person most verbs have a specific conjunctive form which differs from the indicative either in the ending or in the stem itself; there is however no distinction between the singular and plural of the present conjunctive in the 3rd person (indicative: are he has; conjunctive: să aibă (that) he has; indicative: au they have; conjunctive: să aibă (that) they have; indicative: vine he comes; conjunctive: să vină (that) he comes; indicative: vin they come; conjunctive: să vină (that) they come).
The present tense is by far the most widely used of the two subjunctive tenses and is used frequently after verbs that express wish, preference, permission, possibility, request, advice, etc.: a vrea to want, a dori to wish, a prefera to prefer, a lăsa to let, to allow, a ruga to ask, a sfătui to advise, a sugera to suggest, a recomanda to recommend, a cere to demand, to ask for, a interzice to forbid, a permite to allow, to give permission, a se teme to be afraid, etc.
When used independently, the subjunctive indicates a desire, a fear, an order or a request, i.e. has Modal verb and imperative mood values. The present subjunctive is used in questions having the modal value of should:
The present subjunctive is often used as an imperative, mainly for other persons than the second person. When used with the second person, it is even stronger than the imperative. The first-person plural can be preceded by the interjection hai, which intensifies the imperative meaning of the structure:
The subjunctive present is used in certain set phrases used as greetings in specific situations:
The past tense of the subjunctive mood has one form for all persons and numbers of all the verbs, which is să fi followed by the past participle of the verb. The past subjunctive is used after the past optative-conditional of the verbs that require the subjunctive ( a trebui, a vrea, a putea, a fi bine, a fi necesar, etc.), in constructions that express the necessity, the desire in the past:
When used independently, the past subjunctive indicates a regret related to a past-accomplished action that is seen as undesirable at the moment of speaking:
| I am | (Ry)dw i/... ydw i | (that) I be | bwyf, byddwyf |
| Thou art | (R)wyt ti/... wyt ti | (that) thou beest | bych, byddych |
| He is | Mae e/... ydy e Mae o/...ydy o | (that) he be | bo, byddo |
| One is | Ydys | (that) one be | bydder |
| We are | (Ry)dyn ni/...dyn ni (Ry)dan ni/... dan ni | (that) we be | bôm, byddom |
| You are | (Ry)dych chi/...dych chi (Ry)dach chi/... dach chi | (that) you be | boch, byddoch |
| They are | Maen nhw/...dyn nhw | (that) they be | bônt, byddont |
| When need be | Pan fo angen | When there'll be need | Pan fydd angen |
| Before it be | Cyn (y) bo | Before it's | Cyn iddi fod |
| In order that there be | Fel y bo | In order for there to be | Er mwyn bod |
| She left so that she be safe | Gadawodd hi fel y bo hi'n ddiogel | She left so that she'd be safe | Gadawodd hi fel y byddai hi'n ddiogel |
| It is time that I go | Mae'n amser yr elwyf | It's time for me to go | Mae'n amser imi fynd |
The imperfect subjunctive, as in English, only affects the verb bod ("to be"). It is used after pe (a form of "if") and it must be accompanied by the conditional subjunctive e.g. Pe bawn i'n gyfoethog, teithiwn i trwy'r byd. = "If I were rich, I would travel throughout the world."
| I was | (R)oeddwn i | I would be | byddwn i | (that) I were | bawn i |
| Thou wast | (R)oeddet ti | Thou wouldst be | byddet ti | (that) thou wert | baet ti |
| He was She was | (R)oedd e/o (R)oedd hi | He would be She would be | byddai fe/fo byddai hi | (that) he were (that) she were | bai fe/fo bai hi |
| One was | (R)oeddid | One would be | byddid | (that) one were | byddid |
| We were | (R)oeddem ni | We would be | byddem ni | (that) we were | baem ni |
| You were | (R)oeddech chi | You would be | byddech chi | (that) you were | baech chi |
| They were | (R)oedden nhw | They would be | bydden nhw | (that) they were | baent hwy |
For all other verbs in Welsh, as in English, the imperfect subjunctive takes the same stems as do the conditional subjunctive and the imperfect indicative.
Or when used as the conjunction, the subjunctive is used, like every other language, in a more demanding or wishful statement:
The subjunctive in Gaelic will sometimes have the conjunction gun (or gum before verbs beginning with labial consonants: p, b, m or f) can be translated as 'that' or as 'May ...' while making a wish. For negatives, nach is used instead.
Note that the present subjunctive is identical to the dependent future tense form, which lacks the ending -idh!
| I am | Tha mi/ Is mise | I will be | Bidh mi | (that) I be | (gum) bi mi |
| Thou art | Tha thu/ Is tusa | Thou wilt be | Bidh tu | (that) thou beest | (gum) bi thu |
| He is | Tha e/ Is e | He will be | Bidh e | (that) he be | (gum) bi e |
| One is | Thathar | One will be | Bithear | (that) one be | (gum) bithear |
| We are | Tha sinn/ Is sinne | We will be | Bidh sinn | (that) we be | (gum) bi sinn |
| You are | Tha sibh/ Is sibhse | You will be | Bidh sibh | (that) you be | (gum) bi iad |
| They are | Tha iad/ Is iadsan | They will be | Bidh iad | (that) they be | (gum) bi iad |
In Scottish Gaelic, the past subjunctive of the verb bi 'be' is robh, exactly the same as the dependent form of the preterite indicative.
| I was | Bha mi/ Bu mhise | I would be | Bhithinn | (that) I were | (gun) robh mi |
| Thou wast | Bha thu/ Bu tusa | Thou wouldst be | Bhiodh tu | (that) thou wert | (gun) robh thu |
| He was | Bha e/ B' e | He would be | Bhiodh e | (that) he were | (gun) robh e |
| One was | Bhathar | One would be | Bhite | (that) one were | (gun) robhas |
| We were | Bha sinn/ Bu sinne | We would be | Bhiodh sinn | (that) we were | (gun) robh sinn |
| You were | Bha sibh/ Bu sibhse | You would be | Bhiodh sibh | (that) you were | (gun) robh sibh |
| They were | Bha iad/ B' iadsan | They would be | Bhiodh iad | (that) they were | (gun) robh iad |
For every other verb in Gaelic, the past subjunctive is identical to the conditional.
Examples:
The subjunctive is normally formed from "Go" (which eclipses, and adds "n-" to a verb beginning with a vowel), plus the subjunctive form of the verb, plus the subject, plus the thing being wished for. For instance, the subjunctive form of "téigh" (go) is "té":
Or again, the subjunctive of "tabhair" (give) is "tuga":
Or to take a third example, sometimes the wish is also a curse, like this one from Tory Island in Donegal:
The subjunctive is generally formed by taking the stem of the verb and adding on the appropriate subjunctive ending depending on broad or slender, and first or second conjugation. For example, to the stem of bog (to move) is added -a giving as its subjunctive in the first person boga mé:
First conjugation:
| mola siad |
| brise siad |
Second conjugation:
| beannaí siad |
| bailí siad |
E.g. "go mbeannaí Dia thú" – May God bless you.
There is also some irregularity in certain verbs in the subjunctive. The verb bí (to be) is the most irregular verb in Irish (as in most Indo-European languages):
| tá siad |
| raibh siad |
The Irish phrase for "thank you" – go raibh maith agat – uses the subjunctive of "bí" and literally means "may there be good at-you".
Some verbs do not follow the conjugation of the subjunctive exactly as conjugated above. These irregularities apply to verbs whose stem ends already in a stressed vowel and thus due to the rules of Irish orthography and pronunciation, cannot take another. For example:
| té tú |
| sá tú |
| luí tú |
| feo tú |
Where the subjunctive is used in English, it may not be used in Irish and another tense might be used instead. For example:
The regular subjunctive mood can be put in two tenses; present and future. There is another mood, called the contrafactual mood, which serves as both the past subjunctive and the past conditional mood in Hindustani. Hindi-Urdu, apart from the non-aspectual forms (or the simple aspect) has three grammatical aspects (Habitual aspect, perfective & progressive) and each aspect can be put five grammatical moods (indicative, Presumptive mood, subjunctive, contrafactual & Imperative mood). The subjunctive mood can be put in the present tense only for the verb honā (to be) for any other verb only the future sujunctive form exists. Subjunctive mood forms for all the three grammatical aspects of Hindustani for the verbs honā (to be) and karnā (to do) are shown in the table below.
| + Subjunctive and Contrafactual Conjugations of honā (to be) ! colspan="2" rowspan="5" | mood ! rowspan="5" | tense ! colspan="6" | singular ! colspan="2" | plural |
| + Subjunctive and Contrafactual Aspectual Forms of karnā (to do) ! colspan="2" rowspan="5" | mood ! rowspan="5" | tense ! colspan="6" | singular ! colspan="2" | plural |
| + Subjunctive and Contrafactual Conjugations of karnā (to do) ! colspan="2" rowspan="5" | mood ! rowspan="5" | tense ! colspan="6" | singular ! colspan="2" | plural |
The subjunctive mood in the dependent clause is obligatory in the case of certain independent clauses, for example it is incorrect to say chcę, że to zrobi, but the subjunctive mood must be used instead: chcę, by to zrobił.
The subjunctive can never be mistaken with the conditional, despite that in the case of the conditional mood the clitic by and derivatives can move. See that in the following examples:
Compare to the closely related optative mood, e.g. the subjunctive nie nalegam, by wysłał list vs the optative oby wysłał list.
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 mood of the imperfect aspect, the jussive, majzūm, is used.
In many spoken Arabic dialects, there remains a distinction between indicative and subjunctive; however, it is not through a suffix but rather a prefix.
In Levantine Arabic, the indicative has b- while the subjunctive lacks it:
Egyptian Arabic uses a simple construction that precedes the conjugated verbs with ( law "if") or ( momken "may"); the following are some examples:
Tunisian Arabic often precedes the imperfective indicative verb by various conjunctions to create the subjunctive:
Ma:
Ken for wish, hope or opinion:
Taw for a highly expected possibility:
Ra for inevitability but it's, in most cases, accompanied with "ken" in the other clause:
Biblical subjunctive forms survive in non-productive phrases in such forms as the third-person singular of (להיות , יהי/תהי or יהא/תהא) and (לחיות , יחי/תחי), mostly in a literary register:
Examples:
Note that "demand" is nowhere near as rude as it might sound in English. It is a polite but firm request, but not as polite as, say, "would you...".
The characteristic letter in its ending is -j-, and in the definite conjunctive conjugation the endings appear very similar to those of singular possession, with a leading letter -j-.
An unusual feature of the mood's endings is that there exist a short and a long form for the second person singular (i.e., "you"). The formation of this for regular verbs differs between the indefinite and definite: the indefinite requires just the addition of -j, which differs from the longer ending in that the last two sounds are omitted (-j and not -jél for example in menj above, cf. menjél). The short version of the definite form also drops two letters, but another two. It drops, for example: the -ja- in -jad, leaving just -d, as can be seen in add above (instead of adjad).
There are several groups of exceptions involving verbs that end in -t. The rules for how this letter, and a preceding letter, should change when the subjunctive endings are applied are quite complicated, see the article Hungarian verbs. As usual, gemination of a final sibilant consonant is demonstrated when a j-initial ending is applied:
When referring to the demands of others, the subjunctive is demonstrated:
Examples of the optative mood (istek kipi) are gideyim , gitsin , gidelim , and gitsinler . Suggested actions and desires are expressed with the optative verb. The suffixes -(y)eyim, -(y)elim, and other forms are used to form an optative verb. The Turkish optative means 'let someone do something' in English. Forming the optative:
An example of a conditional mode (şart kipi) is Çalışırsa kazanır , çalıştıysa kazanır .
An examples of a necessitative mood (gereklilik kipi) is: Benim gelmem gerek , Dün toplantıya katılman gerekirdi An examples of an necessitative mood (gereklilik kipi)
An example of an imperative mode (emir kipi) is siz gelin , onlar gelsinler .
An examples of a desiderative mood (dilek kipi) is Ah! şimdi burada olsa ydı ; Keşke burada ola ydı ; Keşke arabam olsa da otobüse binmesem ; Keşke arabam ol saydı da otobüse binmeseydim ; Keşke arabam olsa o zaman otobüse binmem ;
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