Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The English subjunctive is realized as a finite but tenseless clause.Subjunctive clauses use a bare or plain verb form, which lacks any inflection.For instance, a subjunctive clause would use the verb form "be" rather than "am/is/are" and "arrive" rather than "arrives", regardless of the person and number of the subject.
Another use of the subjunctive in modern English is for noun clauses that follow certain types of verbs of command and desire. In this usage the subjunctives convey that the noun clause is describing a state that is a possibility driven by a command or desire, yet not a present reality or future certainty.
The subjunctive (also known as conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it.Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, obligation, or action that has not yet occurred; the precise situations in which they are used ...
The past tense (simple past or past progressive) of the condition clause is historically the past subjunctive. In modern English this is identical to the past indicative, except in the first and third persons singular of the verb be, where the indicative is was and the subjunctive were; was is sometimes used as a colloquialism (were otherwise ...
The past subjunctive were is negated like the indicative (were not, weren't). A non-finite clause is negated by placing not before the verb form: not to be outdone (sometimes not is placed after to in such clauses, though often frowned upon as a split infinitive ), not knowing what to do .
For the past subjunctive (were in place of was), see English subjunctive. For the use of the past tense in indirect speech and similar contexts, see § Indirect speech below. The -ed ending of regular verbs is pronounced as follows: Regular verb endings with voiced consonants + /d/, e.g. hugged /hʌɡd/.
It also has two past tense forms: was for first and third person singular, and were for plural and second person (also used as a past subjunctive with all persons; see English subjunctive). It has the following negative forms: third person singular present isn't , other present aren't (including first person for the question aren't I ), first ...
Regular verbs have identical past tense and past participle forms in -ed, but there are 100 or so irregular English verbs with different forms (see list). The verbs have , do and say also have irregular third-person present tense forms ( has , does /dʌz/ , says /sɛz/ ).