An Overview of the Subjunctive

I'm going to talk about the subjunctive mood here not in any specific terms so no you won't learn how to conjugate verb in the subjunctive but as way to help you understand what the subjunctive actually is remember when first learned about the subjunctive it was horrifying was high school sophomore in French class you know that's not the horrifying part but rumors had already trickled down to us about the mysterious complex thing called the subjunctive it's so abstract although doubt we use that word and the fact that no one really understood just what the subjunctive actually was made it scary frightening and well downright horrifying maybe it's that the subjunctive in French is more difficult we see the subjunctive in Latin in few classifiable uses and this systematic approach towards the subjunctive heck you know towards Latin in general will make the subjunctive much easier so first let's define the subjunctive by what it isn't the subjunctive is one of three moods in Latin in English by the way there's also the imperative these are commands like look or gim me and the indicative the indicative mood is really what you first learn in any language because of this my students call this the regular mood of the verb but really it's the factual form of the verb it indicates things that have happened are happening or will very likely happen so with she eats Pie eats is in the indicative mood because it's relaying an action that actually is happening the same for had read the book since there are no facts in the future unless of course you're omniscient like Jupiter and know everything in the future the future indicative represents not future facts but events very likely to happen in the future something like will do my homework shows likely action rather than yeah may do my homework the subjunctive however is used to show actions that are either not true unreal of general enal circumstance hypothetical possible but not quite real or hoped for but may or may not come true and as said before Latin uses the subjunctive in very specific instances I'm going to illustrate some of the major uses of the subjunctive now and show you how these reflect the general idea of the subjunctive the unreal hypothetical mood I've already talked about the imperative the command like eat but Latin uses subjunctive to illustrate mild type of command called ad Jive oratory something like let's eat notice though that just because I'm saying let's eat it doesn't mean we're going to we probably will but just because guy says to you let's go to the movies that doesn't mean you must you can always decline similar to this is the potential subjunctive we could go to the movies there's possibility that we will but the future is still bit unclear and also related is the Optive the wish wish we could go to the movies talk about living in dream world sometimes subjunctive is included in question that reflects doubt or even an impossibility something like should go to the movies or what could have done again these questions reflect unreality if that's word and are completely different plane from indicative questions like what is your name deliberative subjunctive question would be more like what should your name be these four that I've talked about are the times Latin uses the subjunctive in main Clause that is they make up the sentence entirely but most of the time you will run across subjunctive in dependent clause that is they aren't the main action but lower subordinate action if this is confusing you'll see in second okay so the subjunctive can be used to show the purpose of an action went to the store to buy cheese or so that might buy cheese here we have real action went to the store yes that actually did happen and so we would use the indicative mood not the sub junctive for this part but the buying of cheese did that really happen you may think so because that's the reason why went to the store but the sentence doesn't actually say that succeeded in my purchase maybe forgot my wallet at home maybe decided to buy ice cream instead once got there maybe ran into an old friend and totally forgot why went to the store the truth is the sentence doesn't say whether actually bought cheese just that went to the store and my reason for going to the store that's why the verb Buy would be rendered into the subjunctive in Latin the reality of that by action is uncertain and uncertain truths use the subjunctive the subjunctive also shows the result of an action so here we go mama so fat when she's in Rome Rome has eight Hills the truth of the sentence is that your mom is is obese this is the indicative the result of her being so obese is that she's often mistaken for hill and this is the subjunctive was so scared that was quaking in my boot boots what's the actual statement here that was scared and the result of this is the subjunctive that was quaking in my boots you also see this subjunctive used in indirect questions want to know where the bathroom is and this is much different from the direct question where is the bathroom you may respond to the indirect question this first one by pointing out where the bathroom is but notice that it actually isn't question at all it's just stating fact namely that want to know something if we swapped out where the bathroom is with Latin you probably wouldn't crack open Latin book and start teaching the person and if someone says want to know where the bathroom is you can simply respond that's nice because the question isn't actually being asked just referenced and so Latin uses the subjunctive there are also General circumstances with the subjunctive when I'm in Rome always visit the Coliseum I'm not actually in Rome right now if only were so this is an unreal statement but whenever do go go and the last major use of the subjunctive is with conditions not simple factual conditions like the Vivid real future of if study hard will learn much but ones that aren't likely to happen like if were to travel to Antarctica would find lots of penguins there I'm probably not going to travel to Antarctica so this is less Vivid future and used as subjunctive there's also past actions that actually didn't happen we can call these contrary to facts like if had learned Latin when when was five would have become the greatest classical scholar ever that actually didn't happen so we would use the subjunctive okay so hope that haven't made the subjunctive sound as scary as thought way back when when was sophomore in French class in Latin it really isn't frightening at all think about it in respect to the truth and reality of the action did this actually happen if you can't definitively say yes then you perhaps are looking at use of the subjunctive