style guide: the subjunctive

The subjunctive exists in its full glory in Latin and Greek, but in English it is dying out. In spoken British English it is next to dead, but bits of it lives on in American English and in the good written English of any country.

In written English it is still exists in statements contrary to fact:

If I were a rich man.

Compare that to a statement of fact:

I was a rich man.

The were in the first sentence is subjunctive, the was in the second is indicative.

Subjunctive and indicative are not tenses – they are not about when something happened – they are moods. Mood is about the reality of a statement:

• The indicative mood is for statements of fact.
• The subjunctive mood is for wishes, desires, commands and things that never were.

Commands are the most common form of the subjunctive, such as “Stop that!” These cause little confusion.

The part of the subjunctive that people are not sure about concerns contrary to fact statements. For these, remember this:

When you talk about what might have been but never was, use were instead of was and might instead of may.

These are most common in statements beginning with as though, as if and if, especially when used with would:

I would marry her if she were beautiful.

Two words that come into this discussions are might and should:

Might:

Might has three important uses:

1. In the present tense as a weaker form of may:
   

   I may go into town.

   I might go into town.

2. As the past tense of may:
   

   John told me he might go into town.

   You never use may in this case in written English. It would be like saying, “John told me he go into town,” instead of “John told me he went into town.”

3. As the subjunctive form of may:
   

   Indicative: He may have gone to Egypt.
   
   Subjunctive: He might have gone to Egypt.

   The first one means maybe he did go, maybe he did not – I am not sure.

   The second means he did not go to Egypt – though he might have if things were different: if he had more money, if his mother was not sick and so on.

Should:

Americans often use the subjunctive after verbs of desire or command. The British use should instead:

American: He recommends that they be given a second chance.

British: He recommends that they should be given a second chance.

The Americans have not dropped the should. Instead they have preserved this use of the subjunctive, as have the Australians, but the British have lost it.

Prefer should over the subjunctive in this case: it is more universal since it sounds fine even in America.

The subjunctive also lives on in certain fixed expressions:

Come what may
Be that as it may
Though all care be exercised
If need be

and so on. These cause little confusion because they are fixed expressions. But if you think about it, apart from these expressions, no one talks like that any more.

See also:

• style guide
• English
• Americanisms
• America
• Britain
• Australia