Deliberate use of subjunctive

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I speak, words often come tumbling out. My mouth works faster than my mind - usually. One exception to this is my deliberate use of the subjunctive. When people ask questions, whose answer I am not sure of, I deliberately use the subjunctive in order to convey the state of doubt in my mind concerning the certainty of the information I am providing. It seems that some people do not catch on to this, but how can you tell them, “Listen, ma’am/sir, in providing you the information I just provided you, I deliberately phrased it in the subjunctive so you may grasp that I was not certain of the information being provided.”

Does anyone else do this, using the subjunctive deliberately when one is providing an answer and is unsure thereof?

WRS

2

Oh, God, I love the subjunctive. I was trying to remember the other day what the word that is the opposite of it is… is it indicative?

3

I believe the opposite of the subjunctive tense would be, indeed, the indicative tense.

“John will be running” - indicative
“John would be running…” - subjunctive

Glad I’m not the only one who loves the subjunctive! I was feeling like the supreme dork for a moment.

How does the subjunctive exactly work with will/shall? I shall, (s)he shall, they shall, etc., for subjunctive; I will, (s)he will, they will, etc., for the indicative?

WRS

4

Indicative: She is going to the store. (simple statement of fact)

Subjunctive: If she were going to the store, she’d take her checkbook with her. (expression of a wish or a statement contrary to fact)

Conditional: If she was going to the store, she took a wrong turn at the light. (a statement that may or may not be true)

People often use the subjunctive when they should use conditional, and vice versa.

WeRSauron, I’m not sure that your example illustrates the subjunctive. Can you give some more examples of when you think are are using it?

5

Subjunctive and indicative (and infinitive and imperative) are moods, not tenses. But the example you gave, which invokes subjunctivity but is technically not necessarily a part of the subjunctive mode per se, is a distinct tense called the conditional – it’s essentially the “past future.”

Although the shall/will distinction is in most standard English usage slowly going by the wayside, the ultra-proper construction for the conditional is “I should/you would/he would.” The “should” here bears the same relation to “shall” as does “would” to “will” and should not be confused with “should” in the sense of “morally or legally called for.” “I should think you well-advised to settle on a faith tradition” is not stating my own moral requirement to think so, but rather stating my view in the same format as you reporting my comment as “Polycarp would think me well-advised…”

6

Will and shall are indicative; would and should are the corresponding subjunctive forms (and also their past tense forms). Verbs like will, shall, may, etc. sometimes already express a certain degree of uncertainty, and their subjunctive forms allow fine-tuning of the relative degrees of uncertainty, contrariness to fact, etc., found within a writing.

7

I thought the subjunctive was generally considered a *mood * of the verb rather than a tense.

8

People do it on quiz shows all the time.

“What’s the bird whose quack doesn’t echo?”

“That would be the duck, Bob.”

9

Blast. I hit enter too soon…

The subjunctive does still come in for a bit of use:

I wouldn’t do that if I *were * you.

I move that he *be * appointed as chairman.

10

Is there any book that deals exclusively with the use of the subjunctive in English? I would love to learn more so as to blow people away with a perfect, immaculate, and spotless use of the subjunctive mood.

WRS

11

Teacher: “Take the cow into the field.” – What mood?
Little Johnny: The cow, sir.

/d&r

12

I thought that the question in this case was:

“What’s the most fowl place you’ve ever made ‘whoopie’?”