The Elusive English Subjunctive
An Overview Almost as Brief as its Matter
Table of Contents
I. A Comparatively Modest Mood
Compared to the French, the rôle of the subjunctive in English is quite
The Elusive English Subjunctive
An Overview Almost as Brief as its Matter
Table of Contents
I. A Comparatively Modest Mood
Compared to the French, the rôle of the subjunctive in English is quite marginal – particularly if you count presence (as I am inclined to do) only when the form of the verb is visibly different from its ordinary, indicative form. 1 In Part II below I describe what I recognize as virtually the only remaining “living” uses (i.e., allowing new formulations). In Part III I list what stereotyped, essentially non-living uses I can come up with.
For both II and III I am inspired by (and I recommend to you) the excellent article on the Subjunctive in Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 2nd edition.
II. The “Living” English Subjunctive
A. Past Used for a Contrafactual Present
Consider the verb “to know” in the words of the well-known song:
The seemingly past form “knew” is used to refer to an unreal present (you do not know Susie the way I do).
Modern French has a similar tactic of using a past indicative verb form as a contrafactual present (or unlikely future) in conditional clauses:
- ♬ Si, toi, tu connaissais Susie comme moi, je la connais… ♫
For more on French conditional sentences see the Language Files Forms and Uses of the Conditional and Concessive Même Si.
Historically, however, a contrafactual like the “knew” in “If you knew Susie” is not a past indicative form, but a (present-unrealized) subjunctive, as becomes clear when we consider the contrafactual “were.” Note the following cases, in which “were” has a singular subject:
The Contrafactual “Were”
- ♬ “If I were a carpenter / And you were a lady, / Would you marry me anyway, / Would you have my baby?”♫
- “If that were true, I would go home and bite my pillow.”
The indicative past tense forms for these sentences would be “was”; the present indicative would be “am” and “is.” The contrafactual “were” we see here is a true subjunctive, cognate with the German “Konjunktiv II” form wäre. It refers, not to something past, but to an unreal present.
Here are a few other occurrences of contrafactual “were.”
“As if / As though” + “were”
- “As if I were anything like him!”
- “You sound as though you were angry.”
“Were to” in a Future-Less-Vivid (Unlikely Future) Condition
- “If that were to happen, the administration would respond immediately.”
Commentary. Here “were to” is pretty much interchangeable with “should.”
“Were” in the Expression of a Wish
- ♬ “Oh, I wish I were 2 in the land of cotton…“♫
- “Would that it were true!”
- “If only you were my father!”
B. The Infinitive Used As a Personal Verb
There are a number of situations, in recent English, in which you might find this curious substitution (as it seems) of the infinitive (or “base form”) for the more usual personal form of the verb. However, only one of them, according to me, is truly current; the others have fallen out of use (or soon will…one may hope).
In Current Usage: After the Expression of a Strong Wish
Some call this the mandative subjunctive. One notices something odd going on in such constructions when the second verb is in the third-person singular, and the usual “-s” is missing:
- “It is essential / It is necessary / that one read attentively all the relevant documents.”
- “She insists that George tell her what happened.”
In fact, the verb form used here is the infinitive (or “base form”), as is revealed when the second verb is “to be” (the only English verb with a unique infinitive form):
- “It is important that you be on time.”
The French for the above sentences definitely uses the subjunctive:
- Il est essentiel / Il faut / qu’on lise attentivement tous les documents se rapportant à l’affaire.
- Elle insiste pour que / Elle exige / que Georges lui dise ce qui est arrivé.
- Il est important / Il importe / que vous soyez à l’heure.
I do not much care for this “mandative subjunctive” construction. Even if Old and Midd