Indicative VS Subjunctive Mood
I teach FSL, and one concept in French that can be difficult for students to grasp is the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is a verb form that expresses doubt, possibility, necessity, etc. While English does have a subjunctive mood, it is far less commonly used.
Metaphor: The Subjunctive as a “Parallel Universe”
Imagine that the indicative mood (statements of fact) is our “real world,” where things are certain and factual. In contrast, the subjunctive mood is like a “parallel universe” where things are uncertain or imagined.
- Real World (Indicative Mood): “He is here” = fact
- Parallel Universe (Subjunctive Mood): “I wish that he were here” = not a fact, something that is imagined or desired
Just like how the rules can be different in a parallel universe, the rules for verb conjugation change when you’re using the subjunctive mood in French.
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