Learn About The Subjunctive Mood in English

The English present subjunctive is the plain (uninflected) form of the verb, the same form as the bare infinitive and the imperative. For example, the present subjunctive form of the verb to think is simply think. In some (comparatively recent) texts that use the archaic pronoun thou, a final -est or -st is sometimes added; for example, “thou beest“ appears frequently in the work of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries.

The subjunctive is most distinctive in the verb to be. Here, there is not only a present subjunctive — be — but also a past subjunctive, were. Since other English verbs have a single universal past form (I sat,
you sat, s/he, sat, we sat, they sat), they do not need to single one form out as a separate past subjunctive (the way 'to be' singles out 'were' among all its forms). Historically, the only place where the past subjunctive was distinguished from the past indicative, in Early Modern English, is in the second person singular. Hence, indicative thou sattest, but subjunctive thou sat. This usage was uncommon even then, however.

The subjunctive mood is used in English in a number of different ways.

Stock phrases and clichés

W. Somerset Maugham said that “The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible”. An alternative view is that the subjunctive mood remains an ordinary working feature of English grammar, but that it is called moribund because it is often indistinguishable from the ordinary present indicative.

The subjunctive mood is used in a number of fossil phrases that are perhaps no longer felt as inflecting the verb in a particular way. One common past-subjunctive expression is as it were; common present-subjunctive expressions include:

be that as it may
(God) bless you!
come what may
(God) damn it!
Far be it from me
till death do us part
God save our gracious Queen; long live our noble Queen.
Heaven forfend/forbid
so be it
suffice it to say
woe betide

Many of these are now often analyzed as imperative forms rather than as the subjunctive ones they are.

Jussive subjunctive

The subjunctive regularly appears in subordinate clauses, almost always a that clause, after verbs of commanding or requesting:

I move that the bill be put to a vote.
I demand that Napoleon surrender!
It is necessary that classes be cancelled.

This use of the subjunctive remains lively in all varieties of English, so that a sentence like *I demand that Napoleon surrenders would be perceived by many as a solecism. However, British English prefers to structure this sentence with should: I demand that Napoleon should surrender.

Hypothetical subjunctive

This usage of the subjunctive is called for whenever the situation described by the verb is “hypothetical”, whether wished for, feared, or suggested; the common thread is that the situation is not the current state of affairs.

Thus the song from Fiddler on the Roof celebrates the word If in an extended hypothetical, marked by subjunctive mood, for example:

“If I were a rich man, ... There would be one long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down.” — Tevye the milkman

Some linguists call this use of the subjunctive the irrealis. This is the sense in which some claim that the subjunctive in English is moribund. This subjunctive can occur with or without a word like if or whether that specifically marks a phrase as hypothetical. When if is omitted, an inverted syntax is usually used:

Were I the President…
If I were the King of the world…
Be he alive or be he dead…
If I were the President…

In most varieties of English, this subjunctive can be replaced by an indicative when the if form is used:

If I was the President…
If he was a ghost…

Such usage is commonplace, but is sometimes considered erroneous in formal or educated speech and writing.

The unmarked, inverted syntax form — *Was I the President … — does not occur. However, inverted syntax in itself can be the sign of a subjunctive with a few common verbs other than to be:

Had we but world enough, and time… (Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress)
Come tomorrow, I will be on that plane.

The unmarked subjunctive began to appear in the sixteenth century; since that time, it has expanded to being at least as common as the marked forms. Some use the marked form even in the absence of a hypothetical situation — “Johnny asked me if I were afraid” (Barbara in Night of the Living Dead (1968)) — simply as a conditioned variant that follows if and similar words. This is commonly considered a hypercorrection. (In the example quoted, if is a substitute for the unambiguous word whether (“Johnny asked me whether I was afraid”), and lacks the usual, “in the event that” meaning that if has in other usage (e.g., “If we go to bed now, we'll be up at three o'clock”).)

Another use of the hypothetical subjunctive occurs with the verb “wish”:

I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener.

This, too, is often replaced with the unmarked form.

This subjunctive is not uniform in all varieties of spoken English. It is preserved in speech, at least, in North American English, and in some dialects of British English. While it is no longer mandatory, except perhaps in the most formal literary discourse, the reports of its demise have been exaggerated. Notably, the divergence of usage in Britain and American can result in the same utterance having significantly different meanings in the two dialects. For example, the sentence “They insisted he went to chapel every day,” in British English, usually means that he was required to go to chapel daily, but in American it means that the “they” of the sentence are asserting that he went daily, perhaps in refutation of a statement to the contrary. To signify that he was obliged to attend chapel, an American would say “ They insisted he go to chapel every day.”

The subjunctive is very rare in received standard British English, and only used in some set phrases and in conditional clauses expressing impossibility. Otherwise, it is replaced by should + bare infinitive.

Thus, in British English:

I wish I were you. (it is impossible for me to be you)
I wish I were there. (it is impossible for me to be there, for I am elsewhere during the moment in question)
If only he were prescient. (it is impossible for him to be prescient)
I eat lest I should die. (American English: I eat lest I die.) See final clauses.
They insisted that there should be a proper catering service involved. (American English: They insisted that a proper catering service be involved. or …that there be…)

In British English, it is considered incorrect to use a negative subjunctive. The sentence He took heed that his boss not see him., while correct in American English, is incorrect in British, where it should be rendered thus: He took heed that his boss might not see him. (or lest his boss should see him). The following construction is common in American English, and is readily understood:

I wouldn't do that if I were you.

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