Verbs : The Subjunctive Mood



If you are a student of Spanish, the subjunctive mood is something you will have to contend with on a grand scale. In English, however, most people will go through life blissfully aware of its existence. Even people who use the subjunctive without most likely do so without realising it…

A verb is in the subjunctive mood when it expresses a condition which is doubtful or not factual. It is most often found in a clause beginning with the word if.


It is also found in clauses following a verb that expresses a doubt, a wish, regret, request, demand, or proposal.These are verbs typically followed by clauses that take the subjunctive:

ask, demand, determine, insist, move, order, pray, prefer, recommend, regret, request, require, suggest, and wish.

In English there is no difference between the subjunctive and normal, or indicative, form of the verb except for the present tense third person singular and for the verb to be.

The subjunctive for the present tense third person singular drops the -s or -es so that it looks and sounds like the present tense for everything else.

The subjunctive mood of the verb to be is be in the present tense and were in the past tense, regardless of what the subject is.

Here are a few examples: Continue reading “Verbs : The Subjunctive Mood”

Verbs : definition and use…



A verb is a kind of word. Its job is to signal an action, an occurrence or a state of being in a sentence.

This tells the reader/listener who is doing what, what is happening or that somebody or thing… well, just ‘is’ or ‘was’. In fact, in order to actually be a sentence a group of words must contain a verb.

It is worth noting here that verbs have tenses. The tense of a verb informs the audience whether the action happened

  • in the past – ten minutes ago, yesterday, last week or any time gone by
  • the present – at this very moment
  • the future – in a few minutes, tomorrow, next week or any time yet to come.

Continue reading “Verbs : definition and use…”

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