8. The subjunctive mood 8.1. The subjunctive mood The subjunctive mood is one of the mood. The mood is the inflection which expresses the speaker's feelings. Therefore, this is different from the tense and aspect, but this text explains it with the three points to understand it deeply. In English, it has three, the present subjunctive mood, the past subjunctive mood and the subjunctive past perfect. These are not often used in spoken. The indicative mood is used instead. They are explained in the next subsection. 8.1.1. The present subjunctive mood The present subjunctive mood uses the base form and expresses a supposition in the present. It is different from the others which express an unreal event.. The past subjunctive mood is explained in 8.1.2 and the subjunctive past perfect is explained in 8.1.3. The present subjunctive mood is not often used now, the indicative mood is used instead. The usage is restricted now. It is used in the noun clause after the verbs, the adjectives and the nouns, which mean a request, a suggestion, a claim, necessity and a decision. See the following examples. (1) a. They decided that the match be put off. b. It is important that she learn to have a global vision. c. It was necessary that he finish the job by the following day. The base forms are used in the subordinate clauses. Now, the base forms are often used like the above in American English, but "should" is used in British English. See the following examples which are changed into the usage of British English from (1). (2) a. They decided that the match should be put off. b. It is important that she should learn to have a global vision. c. It was necessary that he should finish the job by the following day. The verbs which use the present subjunctive mood are ask, desire, insist, intend, move, order, propose, recommend, request, require, suggest, urge etc. Moreover, the adjectives are anxious, compulsory, desirable, essential, imperative, important, necessary, proper, right etc. And the nouns are decision, desire, insistence, order, proposal, recommendation, request, suggestion etc. The time representation is as follows. (3) a. They decided that the match be put off. b. It is important that she learn to have a global vision. It needs the two time line to represent since the subordinate clause is the noun clause. The lower line represents the present subjunctive mood. It is similar to the present tense because of the present supposition. Now, the reason why it is used is because the speaker's supposition which means the uncertain event whether it is done or not is implicated. Moreover, the sequence of tense is not occurred like (3a) because the time relationship between the two verbs of the two clauses is not relative to the speaker's supposition.

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