T.A.M.

7 (based on tefnescu, Vian and Vian 2009, 2013)

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
I wish I had a girl as white as snow!
There is something that often puzzles us, learners of English, in this kind of sentence: whenever we express
wishes, we dont expect to use past tenses in order to formulate them. Well, it shouldnt be so surprising
for students to find out that in fact had in our example is no past tense, but a subjunctive form. Consider
the examples below and their translation in Romanian:
(1) I wish I had a dollar (I might get one, after all).
A vrea s am un dolar.
(2) I wish I had listened to him (so why didnt I?).
A vrea s-l fi ascultat.
The underlined structures are in fact subjunctive forms, present and past respectively. The Romanian
translation shows you that the present subjunctive form roughly corresponds to a present conjunctive one
in Romanian, while the past form matches a perfect conjunctive one. In the first case, the possibility that
the wish will be fulfilled exists, whereas in the second case, there is no way this wish can be fulfilled any
more.
Identifying the Structure
Students find certain aspects related to this mood very puzzling. The most puzzling one is the fact that the
forms of the Subjunctive are not easily identified. For the Subjunctive does not have a face of its own, or at
least not one you would recognize so easily. Take, for instance, the sentences above, which contain
subjunctive forms that could be mistaken for Past or Past Perfect structures. So, how can we tell when we
are dealing with a subjunctive form?
Answer: there are three ways in which a subjunctive form can be identified:
a) by looking at the context in which it appears: for instance, in the case of (1) the main verb wish should
warn you that a subjunctive form is required to complete it
b) by looking at the meaning of the structure: if it has a hypothetical meaning, it probably is a
subjunctive
c) by translating it: if it can be translated through a conjunctive/conditional form in Romanian, then it is
likely to be a subjunctive (the other option is conditional, but the Conditional is easily identified in
English)
The Subjunctive vs. the Indicative
Since we are dealing with a mood that is nothing like the Indicative, let us look at the features that make
this mood stand out. Consider the table below. Discuss it with your teacher:

THE INDICATIVE MOOD

16 tenses
descriptive
factual

THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD

2 tenses (present and perfect)

prescriptive
hypothetical, counterfactual

! The sequence of tenses operates only within the Indicative. There are no sequence
of tenses phenomena between the Indicative and other moods !
Test:
Indirect Speech instances

DS: Anne: I want to go home. (Present

Simple)
IS: Anne told Bill she wanted to go
home. (Past Simple)

DS: Anne: I wish I had more money. (Present

Subjunctive)
IS: Anne told Bill she wished she had more
money. (Present Subjunctive)
DS: Anne: If you gave me your book, I would
lend you my bike. (Present Subjunctive,
Present Conditional)
IS: Anne told Bill she would lend him her bike
if he gave her his book. (Present Conditional,
Present Subjunctive)

This table shows you that the difference of meaning and form that lies at the basis of these two moods
makes it impossible for the sequence of tenses to operate across the boundaries of the Indicative. This fact
is checked by transforming direct speech instances containing the Subjunctive into indirect speech ones.
Normally, in this situation the main clause report verb, which is a Past tense form, should trigger sequence
of tenses phenomena. As you have already seen, this does not happen in the case of the Subjunctive. If it
did, the meaning of the indirect speech sentence would be significantly altered.
Philosophers of language distinguish between assertion and non-assertion. According to them, to assert is to
present the hearer with a representation of the world to which, the speaker believes, the hearer has no
access. Assertions and pointing gestures do not differ in a fundamental way. In assertions, language is said
to be used informatively. (Stefanescu )
Non-assertions do not provide representations of current states of affairs, instead, they are commendations
or commands that a certain state of affairs obtains; they command or commend possible courses that events
should take at a time after now. Non-assertions dont blong to the informative use of language but to a
prescriptive use. (The prescriptive use of language: imperative and subjunctive sentences)
The indicative the deictic category of tense
The subjunctive mood- lacks deictic temporal orientation
The Synthetic/Analytic Opposition
Another reason for which the Subjunctive is difficult to learn and even tougher to teach is the fact that,
while it doesnt exhibit more than two tenses, it can have more types. The best known distinction is that
between what grammarians call the synthetic Subjunctive and the analytic one. If we are keen on
understanding the Subjunctive, we should first take a few minutes to see what these terms mean. This
shouldnt be so difficult if we were aware of the fact that the synthetic/analytic opposition is related to a
grammatical phenomenon that is by no means restricted to the Subjunctive. Indeed, English has pairs of
synthetic and analytic forms in other areas, too. Consider the table below:
SYNTHETIC STRUCTURES
(fusion between main item and the
grammatical information)

ANALYTIC STRUCTURES
(grammatical information is carried
by a separate lexical item)

Subjunctive: I wish I went to the

party.

Subjunctive: I wish it would rain.

Comparative: bigger/est than him

Comparative: more interesting than

him

Genitive: Susans, fathers car

Genitive: the complete works of

Shakespeare

Types of Subjunctive
We have finally reached to the most important part of our discussion: what Subjunctive forms we can
identify, how many types there are and where we can find them. Consider the tables below, which will
supply the required information. The first table will make a distinction between the two main types of
Subjunctive that we can speak of, i.e. the Synthetic and the Analytic ones. The Synthetic type can be further
split into two subtypes, the so called old Subjunctive (or as Quirk used to put it, the formulaic
subjunctive, thus named because it is mainly used in stock phrases) and the new Subjunctive, which is in
fact the most frequently used one:
THE SUBJUNCTIVE
THE SYNTHETIC SUBJUNCTIVE
Old

THE ANALYTIC SUBJUNCTIVE

New

Present: play
E.g. Long live the
queen!
Id rather play
chess than stay
here. (I might)

Present: played
I wish I played chess
with you. (I might.)

Present: should/could/may/might play

E.g. Its odd that they should play chess so
well when they are so young.

Perfect: had played

Perfect*: have
I wish I had played
Perfect*: should/could/may/might have
played
chess with you (why
played
E.g. Id rather
didnt I?)
E.g. Its odd that they should have played
have played chess
chess so well last week.
with Susie when
she visited us
(why didnt I?)
! The star (*) indicates that the form is infrequently used in English.
The tables we are proposing below deal with the various contexts that require the presence of the
subjunctive types presented above. Students are advised to memorize these contexts thoroughly:
CONTEXTS FOR THE SYNTHETIC SUBJUNCTIVE
Old
In independent sentences:
Long live the Queen. Come what
may, So be it, Grammar be hanged,

New
Independent sentences:
Oh, had I wings!
If only I had known!

Damn him, Far be it from me

INFINITIVE (vs SUBJ)
In subordinate clauses:
after would rather (the same
subject for main and subordinate
clauses)
Id rather tell you about it./Id rather
have told you about it.
after had better
Youd better tell her about it./ Youd
better have told her about it*.
SUBJUNCTIVE
after verbs of command, wish
(exercitive, bulomaic, emotive)
It is important that he behave himself.

Subordinate clauses:
after if **and any other item containing
if (if only, suppose, supposing, what
if, as if/though, even if/though, say, as
long as, unless):
If Bill got married, he would be miserable./
If Bill had got married, he would have been
miserable.
after wish/ its time/would rather
I would rather you went there/ I would rather
you had gone there. (here the subject of the
main clause is not the same as the subject of
the subordinate).

! The star (*) indicates that the perfect form is infrequently used in English.
** All these elements can also be followed by Present simple (but with a different
shade of meaning):
E.g. If you go there, I will be very disappointed. / He behaves as if he loves her.
Now let us look at the possible contexts in which the analytic subjunctive can appear. Unlike the synthetic
subjunctive, the analytic one is now used mainly in its present form:
CONTEXTS FOR THE ANALYTIC SUBJUNCTIVE
Independent sentences

Subordinate clauses

May you live long and have a

beautiful life.
May he be happy for as long as he
lives.

1.

In that clauses after certain verbs:

Exercitive verbs: ask (require),
demand, forbid, order, pray, press,
recommend, suggest, propose,
supplicate, urge, give orders

An exortation that a certain state of affairs

comes into being:
He has given the order that the patient
should have a bath every day.
Dan insisted that she should date him.
2.

Bulomaic verbs: want, wish, hope,

desire
Commendations that certain situations
should be brought about.
I wish you would stop bothering me.
I desire that you should do your duty.
3.

Emotive verbs: after copula +

evaluative adjectives:
It is advisable/ important/good that he
should meet his teacher soon.
after purpose/sequence introductory

items: so that, so that, in order

that, lest*, for fear that, in case
I hid the secret from him for fear/in case
he might want to use it against her.
after concessive introductory
items**: no matter, how/whatever,
as etc.:
Now matter how much he might know
about her, she still wont listen to him.
Smart as he may be, he still cant read.
Try as I might, I couldnt uncork the
bottle.
* this introductory item is obsolete, no longer used
** all these items can also be followed by an indicative form, with a slightly
different meaning (the speaker assumes that the action of the subordinate is
accomplished)
Compare: Smart as he is, I still dont like him. vs. Smart as he may be, I still
dont like him. (In the first case, I assume he is indeed smart).