Column: A Word, Please: The subjunctive is the weirdest of grammatical moods

Stephanie was here. I wish Stephanie were here.

Tim picks up the dry cleaning. It’s imperative that Tim pick up the dry cleaning.

You are on time. It’s crucial you be on time.

Have you ever noticed how “were” sometimes crops up in places where it normally doesn’t belong? How about the way a verb suddenly drops the final S in certain circumstances? Or maybe you’ve noticed how “be” can get paired with a subject even though normally only conjugated forms like “is” and “are” pair up with subjects?

Welcome to the wonderful world of the subjunctive, a grammatical “mood” you probably use all the time without knowing why or even how. Definitions of mood throughout the linguistics world are uniformly lame, so the best way to get a handle on mood is to note that there are three: indicative, which are statements; imperative, which are commands; and subjunctive, which expresses things contrary to fact like suppositions and wishes, as well as commands, demands and statements of necessity.

The indicative mood is a piece of cake. Any statement, such as both the sentences in this paragraph, is an example of indicative mood.

The imperative is simple, too. It means, basically, commands, which we use every day. “You are nice” becomes “Be nice” when we put it in imperative. No heavy thinking required.

The subjunctive is the weird one — so weird that it can make you sound like a pirate: “If it’s true he be alive.” That’s because the English subjunctive is fading away. It was once more common, but it’s been falling out of use for years, and what survives today is a patchwork of common subjunctive uses.

The most familiar form of the subjunctive is the “wish” statement. “I wish he were here.” Notice how being a wish changes the verb form: If you drop “I wish” and you get the clearly incorrect “He were here.”

In the past tense, forming the subjunctive is simple: Whenever your sentence expresses a wish, another contrary-to-fact sentiment, a command, demand or supposition, just change “was” to “were.” He was real. If only he were real. She was happy. If only she were happy.

In other words, the past-tense subjunctive applies to only one verb, “be.” And it’s only detectable in the third-person and first-person singular because those are the only two persons that don’t use “were” already. I was. You were. He was. She was. We were. They were.

The rule is just change “was” to “were.” That’s not necessary for the persons that would be using “were” anyway.

Present-tense subjunctive mood applies not just to the verb “be” but to all verbs. It’s formed by replacing the conjugated verb with the “base form” of the verb, which you can think of as the infinitive without “to.” So the base form of “to be” is “be.” The base form of “to walk” is “walk.”

The present-tense subjunctive comes up most in the form of commands and statements of necessity. “It’s crucial he be here on time.” “I insist that he be here on time.”

There’s a pretty big difference between “he is here” and subjunctive “he be here.” But the difference isn’t as big with other verbs, which change less when they’re conjugated: “He walks.” “It’s imperative he walk.” The subjunctive differs by just one letter: S.

But in most cases, the present-tense subjunctive is identical to the indicative because there’s no S to drop. “I walk.” “It’s imperative I walk.”

If you find all this a little overwhelming, I have good news: The subjunctive is optional. There’s no grammar rule that says it’s required in any situation. You can use your judgment and say what comes naturally.

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “The Best Punctuation Book, Period.” She can be reached at JuneTCN@aol.com.