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Subjunctif

 

 

• The subjunctive suggests a way of looking at things rather than talking about a moment in time.

 

 

• The subjunctive is rare in English and you will see in the translations that it can be translated in different ways.

 

 

• The subjunctive is frequently used in French. When a main verb expresses a feeling or an emotion (happy, fear, surprise, etc.) or a desire (I want, I demand, etc.) and the verb that follows it has a different subject, this second verb is in the subjunctive.

 

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• Two tenses of the subjunctive are commonly used in modern French: the present and the past. The imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive are only found in literary texts.

 

 

• Present subjunctive: The present tense for most verbs is formed by taking the 3rd person plural form of the present indicative (ils/elles),dropping the –ent, and adding the following endings:

 

-e               -ions

-es             -iez

-e               -ent

 

 

• Note: the subjunctive is often shown in verb charts preceded by the conjunction que to emphasize that these verb forms are used only in dependent clauses, they always follow another conjugated verb.

 

 

• Some of the most common verbs that follow the two stem pattern are: boire, croire, devoir, mourir, prendre, recevoir, and voir. If you check the conjugation of these verbs in the present indicative, you will see that they follow a similar pattern there since they also have two stems.

 

Ex. Il faut que la sorcière prenne le poision.

 

 

• Some other frequently used verbs have 2 stems in the subjunctive that are not based on the present indicative, but they follow this same pattern (one stem for je, tu, il/elle, ils/elles and another for nous and vous).

 

 

Aller: aill-/all-

 

Vouloir: veuill-/voul-

 

• Irregular verbs:

 

Savoir: sach-         Pouvoir: puiss-        Faire: fass-

 

Avoir: ai-/ay-          Être: soi-/soy-

 

 

Past subjunctive

 

 

• The past tense of the subjunctive is a compound past tense (like passé compose) and is composed of the present subjunctive of avoir and être and the past participle of the verb.

 

 

Ex. Elle est contente qu’ils soient arrivés avant son entrerrement.

(She is happy that they arrived before her burial.)

 

 

 

• The past subjunctive is used when the action or condition in the subjunctive clause has taken place before the action or state of the main clause.

 

Ex. Je suis désolé que vous n’ayez pas trouvé le sorcerer.

 

 

• The speaker is sorry NOW that you didn’t find the magician in the PAST.