Skip to main content

An Interesting Grammar Tip: The Subjunctive Mood

By VJ
I demand that he be taken away at once.

If Sarah were doing it, she could complete it by now.

All people said that the mayor resign.

These sentences do not go by the normal rules of usage and grammar. Still they are correct. These sentences are included in a special form of grammar, known as the subjunctive form. In the normal case, the sentence should have been “All people said that the mayor should resign.” The normal counterpart of subjunctive form is known as indicative mood.

In subjunctive form, for all verbs except ‘be,’ the verb form should be the bare root form (the form without ‘to’).

I were, You were, He were, Joe run, We run, He be trashed, She be promoted, etc.

When to Use the Subjunctive

The subjective form is used to denote three elements: Probability, hope, and imagination.

In the negative form, the subjunctive form is just preceded by a not.

I insisted that he not be present for the meeting.

The subjunctive form is not in wide use today, though it is a lot cooler to use it in writing. Mostly formal occasions still have subjunctive usage, and the auxiliary verbs, such as shall, should, would, could, etc., have already rarefied the subjunctive form

Here are some other very commonly used examples of subjunctive form. I am sure you might never have thought of these:

Heaven forbid!

Be that as it may

Come what may

So be it

Suffice it to say

God help him

God bless you

This means, we still use the subjunctive form quite a lot.

History Today

In 1861, the most important Indian poet and novelist and Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore (Gurudev) was born. His hymn “Jana Gana Mana” is the Indian Anthem.

Rabindranath Tagore and Albert EinsteinRabindranath Tagore with Albert Einstein

Young Rabindranath TagoreYoung Rabindranath Tagore

In 1867, Wladyslaw Raymond, Polish writer and Nobel laureate was born.


Recommended Grammar Books From Amazon:

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated very strictly

Popular posts from this blog

En Dash, Em Dash, and Hyphen

By VJ
We have three types of dashes in use: The hyphen, En Dash, and the Em Dash. In this post, we will see how to use them all correctly. Hyphen (-) The hyphen is the minus key in Windows-based keyboards. This is a widely used punctuation mark. Hyphen should not be mistaken for a dash . Dash is different and has different function than a hyphen. A hyphen is used to separate the words in a compound adjective, verb, or adverb. For instance: The T-rex has a movement-based vision. My blog is blogger-powered. John’s idea was pooh-poohed. The hyphen can be used generally for all kinds of wordbreaks . En Dash (–) En Dash gets its name from its length. It is one ‘N’ long (En is a typographical unit that is almost as wide as 'N'). En Dash is used to express a range of values or a distance: People of age 55–80 are more prone to hypertension. Delhi–Sidney flight was late by three hours. In MS Word, you can put an En Dash either from the menu, clicking Insert->Symbol or by the key-combinatio...
11 comments
Read more

Unethical Business Practices by Associated Content (AC)

By VJ
Useful Resources Freelance job at Constant Content Freelance for a 6 figure income Get paid to write on the Internet 25 Ways to write for income on the Internet Work from home as a virtual assistant Freelance for fortune 500 companies Today’s Internet slogan is ‘Content is King’ . If you have well-written, keyword rich content, without grammatical errors, then you can rank very high on search engine results, thus making a lot of money. With this business idea, several companies have sprung up, and Associated Content (who call themselves, People’s Media Company) is one among them. Here, we will try to find answers to these questions: 1. What exactly is Associated Content (if you don’t already know this)? 2. Is it really worthwhile to work with them? 3. Why should you steer right clear of them? What is Associated Content (AC) Associated Content (AC) is a website, in which you can earn money submitting content (text, video, audio, or images) . Anyone from anywhere in the...
53 comments
Read more

Power of Short Sentences

By VJ
Post dedicated to Thomas Hardy (see History Today below). There are monster sentences like the one you encounter as the first paragraph of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens . One of my friends, whom I am getting equipped for his IELTS ( what is this? ), told me that the examination recommends long sentences. In writing classes also, I guess it’s longer sentences most tutors promote. But indubitably shorter sentences are more powerful . We will see why. Take a long sentence for instance: Tom Cruise, one of the finest actors in the whole world, is perhaps the most powerful celebrity to exist ever according to Time Magazine, but many people still dispute this fact and point out that there are more powerful and popular actors than Cruise, though they were unsuccessful in providing the total number of fans, who liked the films of those actors. This is a long sentence and it is very confusing . Though it has a logical construction and conveys a meaning, it falters in many occasions and seems ...
1 comment
Read more