7

The oblique moods

There are four mood forms called "subjunctive" or "oblique" which represent the action as unreal:

Subjunctive I		I (he, she, it, we, you, they)	be, do
Subjunctive II	Present	I (he, she, it, we, you, they)	were, did
	Past		had been, had done
The Conditional Mood	Present	I (he, she, it, we, you, they)	would (should) do
	Past		would (should) have done
The Suppositional Mood	Present	I (he, she, it, we, you, they)	should do
	Past		should have done

Subjunctive I

Subjunctive I represents the action as problematic, but not contradicting reality. It's used to express suggestion, necessity, advice, supposition, etc.

Subjunctive I is seldom used in modern English. It is mostly used in the language of official documents and high prose and the American variant of English. It is used in different types of clauses: subject clauses, object clauses, adverbial clauses etc.

Ex. It's necessary that you help them. (subject clause).

He suggested that we take part in it. (suggestion - object clause)

He was afraid lest they be late. (fear, worry - object clause)

lest - как бы не

Put down my address lest you forget it. (warning - adverbial clause of purpose) lest - чтобы не

Success attend you! (wish - simple sentence)

Damn it! (curse - simple sentence)

Subjunctive II

In Russian when we want to show that the action is not real we use the Subjunctive mood (the past form of the verb plus the particle "бы" - сказал бы, пошел бы, ответил бы).

In English this mood is rendered by the form of Subjunctive II, which is also the past form of any verb.

Ex. Oh, if only it were summer! I wish we had more time. It's time we knew everything.

Subjunctive II represents the action as unreal, as contrary to reality. Morphologically it has two forms: "non-perfect" (Subjunctive II present) and "perfect" (Subjunctive II past).

Subjunctive II present Subjunctive II past

(non-perfect) (perfect)

I did I had done

He were He had been

We went We had gone

You had You had had

The non-perfect form of Subjunctive II is used to express actions simultaneous with the present (or past) moment of the predicate or referred to the future.

Ex. I wish you were all here. (Как бы хотелось, чтобы вы все были здесь.)

He behaved as if he were a child. (Он вел себя как ребенок.)

She wished she could stay there forever. (Ей хотелось бы остаться там навсегда.)

The perfect form of Subjunctive II is used to express priority of actions which were not fulfilled and are only to be regretted.