CHAPTER
THE PROBLEMS
When it comes to using verbs and verbals in sentences, we might have troubles, which an instructor may indicate by writing “VERB” or “VERB USE” in big red letters).
We recall reading an essay in which a student proudly announced that his sister was a member of the “arm forces.” This immediately led us to picture a military organization dedicated to the protection of the part of the body from fingertips to shoulder, for clearly “arm forces” must mean “forces for the arm.” (We also casually wondered if there are “leg forces,” too.) The student had chosen the wrong verb form: he wanted the past participle, “armed.”
Another example, this one from the snowy Midwest: “I told my sister that she shouldn’t have drove home that night in the bad weather.” The meaning is clear here, but something jars, doesn’t it? The problem is again the verb: it should be (again) the past participle, “driven,” not the past form, “drove.”
How about these sentences?
- Call me traditional, but I’m prejudice against candidates who come to a job interview in a chicken suit.
- If she’d checked the weather, she’d never have wore her parka to the pool party.
- His grandmother always remembers him going to pick paw-paws in the paw-paw patch.
The errors in these sentences are so common that it’s likely that you’re not even going to spot them at first! (And if you can’t find the errors in these sentences, then we’ve rather proved our point, yes?) What can you do? Verbs (and their cousins, verbals) thus may be a source of trouble and thus certainly worth a closer look.
WHAT VERBS ARE AND HOW THEY WORK
Verbs, you’ll remember from the chapter on the parts of speech, indicate action, or, in the case of linking verbs, state of being. Here we take a closer look at them and their uses.
Principle Parts of Verbs
The principle parts of a verb show the most basic forms from which all tenses (verb times) are built. There are four principle parts: the infinitive, the present participle, the past tense, and the past participle.
The traditional arrangement for the principle parts of verbs is as follows:
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to bellow | bellowing | bellowed | bellowed |
| to eat | eating | ate | eaten |
In finding the principle parts of a verb, you’ll always get the correct forms if you completing these four sentences:
Today I __________. = infinitive
I am __________. = present participle
Yesterday I __________. = past tense
I have always __________. = past participle
Thus,
Today I bellow.
I am bellowing.
Yesterday I bellowed.
I have always bellowed.
Today I eat.
I am, eating.
Yesterday I ate
I have always eaten.
Regular and Irregular Verbs
If you look closely at the table just above, you’ll note a number of features. Both verbs in the first column have “to” in front of them; in the second column, both verbs have -ing added. However, in the third column, one has an -ed on the end (“bellowed”), while the other has not “eated” but rather “ate.” Again, the third and fourth columns are the same for “bellow,” whereas they’re not for “eat.” What gives?
The answer is that English (like a great many languages) has both regular verbs – those that, like “bellow” – make their past and past participles the same way – and irregular verbs that make the past and past participles in a variety of ways.
Fortunately, most verbs in English – including new ones that we import or invent – are regular. These verbs – like “type” in the above examples – make their past tense and past participle simply by adding-–ed to the infinitive.
Irregular verbs, though, are tricky. Sometimes they make the past tense by a vowel change (“ate”) or by a completely different and seemingly unrelated form (“ate”); often they make their past participle by adding -t, -(e)n or -n(e). Because irregular verbs are unpredictable, you just have to memorize their principle parts. (For a list of irregular verbs, see Table 2 at the end of this chapter.)
Infinitives
The infinitive is the base form of the verb:
Infinitives have a present form, which to form by adding “to” to an the uninflected form of the verb (that is, the form that has no ending on it). To make past form of the infinitive, you add “to have” to the past tense form of the verb:
| present infinitive | past infinitive |
| to bellow | to have bellowed |
| to eat | to have eaten |
Participles
Participles, like infinitives, have both past and present forms; unlike infinitives, you’ll need to know both forms of the participle.
To form the present participle, drop the “to” from the infinitive and add – ing:
| present participle |
| bellowing |
| eating |
The way that you form both the infinitive and the present participle is the same for every verb in English. You’ll always get the correct present infinitive if you complete the sentence “I am __________.”
You from the past participle of a verb by adding –(e)d, – t, -(e)n, or –n(e) to the infinitive:
| past participle |
| bellowed |
| eaten |
As you’ll see in a moment, sometimes even more complicated changes in form, spelling, and even pronunciation take place in the formation of the past participle. To get the correct past participle, complete the sentence, “I have always __________.”
Past (Preterit) Tense
The fourth principle part of verbs is the simple past tense (or preterit, as some grammarians call it). This is the form of the verb that you use to complete the sentence “Yesterday I __________.”:
| past (preterit) tense |
| bellowed |
| ate |
The verb “to be” is not just irregular, but it’s highly irregular – and, alas, quite common:
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to be | being | was (sg.) / were (pl.) | been |
Verbals
Verbals are made from verbs and thus look like verbs. But they act like nouns or adjectives. Infinitives and participles are verbals; a third kind of verbal is the gerund. As the gerund is the only form that we haven’t looked at so far in this chapter, let’s look at that first:
Gerunds
A gerund looks like a verb in that it ends in -ing, but it acts like a noun. Look at these two sentences:
- Sea kelp is good for you.
- They don’t like sea kelp.
While this “substitution method” isn’t failsafe, it is often an accurate way of determining what part of speech a word is. To learn more about the substitution method, see the “Troublespots and Tips” section of this chapter.
To sum up:
- Infinitives are the base form of the verb. You form a present infinitive by adding two to the uninflected form of a verb. You form a past infinitive by adding “to have” to the inflected form of a verb (to sauté, to have sautéed).
- Participles, like infinitives, have both present and past forms. You form all present participles by adding –ing to the uninflected form of a verb (sautéing). Past participles are, alas, not quite so easily formed. Regular verbs form their past participles by adding –ed to the base form of the verb. Irregular verbs form their past participles in various ways – by adding -t, or -(e)n, or -n(e). But there’s no way to know for certain, so the best way to be sure is to consult the table of irregular verbs in this chapter.
- Gerunds you form the same way that you form the present participle: by adding – ing to the uninflected form of the verb. Remember though, that even though gerunds and present participles look the same, they act differently: gerunds act like nouns, and present participles act like adjectives.
THE SOLUTIONS
Let’s go back to those sentences at the very beginning of the chapter and have a closer look at them.
Increasingly people have the tendency to drop the ending off past participles when they’re used as adjectives:
- Problem: Call me traditional, but I’m prejudice against candidates who come to a job interview in a chicken suit.”
- Solution: Call me traditional, but I’m prejudiced against candidates who come to a job interview in a chicken suit.
“Prejudice” is either a noun (“an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason”) or a verb (“to influence an opinion or decision”) – but it’s not an adjective. You need this ending to indicate the function of the word. Thus,
- In a small café in Budapest they ordered iced (not “ice”!) tea.
- The weasel sadly discovered that the fence had barbed (not “barb”!) wire on top.
- When are we supposed (not “suppose”) to go to the Sludge County fair?
Another tendency is to use the past tense of irregular verbs in place of the past participle. Because in regular verbs the past tense and past participles are identical, you can see why this happens; however, you should avoid this confusion:
- Problem: If she’d checked the weather, she’d never have wore her parka to the pool party.
- Solution: If she’d checked the weather, she’d never have worn her parka to the pool party.
Why? Remember the principle parts of verbs: to wear, wearing, wore, [have] worn. Your clue here is you use the past participle with “have” and “had” – and that includes their contractions, ‘ve and ‘d. Thus,
- I’ve never ridden (not “rode”!) a zebra before.
- If she’d heard the weather report, she’d never have worn (not “wore”!) her parka to the pool party.
- He shouldn’t have gone (not “went”!) to the downtown cineplex.
The preferred practice among most grammarians is to treat gerunds fully as the nouns they are and thus use a possessive before them when necessary:
- His grandmother always remembers his (not “him”!) going to pick paw-paws in the paw-paw patch.
- I didn’t mean to be rude, but I really had to object to Augusta’s (not “Augusta!”) singing all 43 verses of “Old King Cole.”
A means of testing this out is the old substitution trick: use a noun for the entire gerund phrase, and you can see why a possessive makes good sense in sentences such as these:
- His grandmother always remembers his (not “him”!) delicious paw-paw pie.
- I didn’t mean to be rude, but I really had to object to Augusta’s (not “Augusta!”) pet goat.
ANALOGY
Verbs are certainly the most powerful words in the English language; that is, they carry clear movement and energy. For that reason, we love to use them. Speakers and writers of English love using verbs so much that we have invented ways of putting more verbs into a sentence than just the main verb. We choose verb words and make them into nouns. We choose verb words and make them into adjectives. In short, we recycle verbs into several other parts of speech, simply because they describe vividly many of the ideas we try to capture in our writing and speaking.
Thus, in a normal sentence such as this one:
- The wheel of the smashed bike continued to spin idly above the crumbling sidewalk.
The main verb in the sentence is continued. The wheel continued. That is the central idea. But look at all the words, made out of verbs, that give clear description and movement in this sentence:
- smashed, used to describe the bike, so it’s an adjective
- to spin, used to describe what the wheel continued to do, so it’s an object or noun
- and crumbling, used to describe the sidewalk, so it’s another adjective
Verbs recycled into adjectives are the verbals that we call participles. Verbs that use the word “to” that complete the main verb of the sentence are the verbals that we call infinitives. Verbs that end in “ing” that function as nouns in sentences are the verbals that we call gerunds.
The fact that we can invent new uses for the words we enjoy using the most is a testament to the incredible flexibility of our language. Recycling improves the environment, and recycling also improves our expressiveness. We can say more in English, using fewer base words, than in almost any other language in the world.
LANGUAGE IN FLUX
When you look at the chart of irregular (“strong”) verbs that follows this chapter, you may notice some patterns. Some irregular verbs have four distinct principle parts, e.g.
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to ride | riding | rode | ridden |
The forms of other irregular verbs are the same:
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to dig | digging | dug | dug |
Some even seem to be hybrids, a mix of both irregular and regular forms:
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to dive | diving | dived or dove | dove |
| to weave | weaving | wove | woven or weaved |
What’s with that? Well, there’s a strong tendency in English for irregular verbs to become regular. (It’s interesting to note that any verb that’s coined – “to interface,” for example – or borrowed into the language – “to dismay,” for example, originally from French – becomes irregular). One change is for the past participle to become identical to the past (preterit) form. The verb “to strike,” for example, has the forms
| infinitive | present participle | past | past participle |
| to strike | striking | struck | struck |
Hundreds of years ago, however, the past participle was “stricken,” a form that we can still find in phrases like “a grief-stricken family.” Take this example: Say a friend of yours has just earned an A on a hard exam – a grammar exam, let’s say. You warn her, “Don’t get a swollen head!” Or wait – is it “a swelled head”?
The essence of language is change (as we try to indicate in these “Language in Flux” sections), but in these changes we can sometimes make out patterns. English displays a tendency to make its past participles regular but to continue to use some of the irregular form as adjectives. Now at the beginning of the 21st century, we find a number of verbs for which two forms are available and acceptable.
We might also note that which form of a verb you use might depend on which sort of English you’ve know. For instance, for some verbs the English have a tendency to use an irregular form where we Americans use a regular one – thus in England one might write (and say) “I’ve finally leant how to make my own shoe polish!”, whereas Americans would write “learned.” Other pairs of this kind include leaned / leant, spelled / spelt, and a few others. However, with other verbs, all users of English may freely use either a regular or an irregular form: creeped or crept, kneeled or knelt, leaped or leapt, and the like.
But we should point out that in some of these verbs, the present participle is migrating to a regular form, while the irregular form is retained as an adjective. Let’s look at our original example. As it happens, you can say (or write) either “a swelled head” or “a swollen head.” But we’re willing to bet that you’d also warn your friend that her glands look “swollen,” not “swelled.” “With the recent rains, the streams have swelled” is just as good as “the streams have swollen.” But to our ears, at least, “a swollen stream” sounds better than “a swelled stream” – and “hand-woven carpet,” as another example, better than “hand-weaved carpet.” And here we see the language in the process of change.
Another change is for irregular verbs to become regular. You’ll notice in Table 2 that many verbs have two accepted forms – like “dived” and “dove,” or “woven” and “weaved,” above. We can see this very process of change at work today: in strong verbs that have both irregular and regular forms, the current tendency in our language is to rely more and more on the regular – for example, we know of few people who would say, “I’ve just mown (for “mowed”) the lawn” or “She’s always striven (for “strived”) for perfection.”
In other irregular verbs, though, the case is different. Grammarians are slow and conservative, and, despite common usage, they haven’t completely accepted the transition to identical past tense and past participle. How often do we hear, for example, people saying “My boss doesn’t like us to put wore [for “worn”] out clothes on the mannequins” or “I shouldn’t have drank [for “drunk”] all that kiwi juice”?
Such usage is neither good nor bad, nor, strictly speaking, right nor wrong. It may, in fact, be ahead of its time. But you need to be aware of the effect that such choices have on an audience. Right now, in formal and academic writing, such usage has not gained wide acceptance; in fact, many readers react badly to sentences such as those in the preceding paragraphs, as they give the impression (rightly or wrongly) of ignorance and lack of polish. How unfair! you might think, and you might well be right. After all, is a reader really going to be utterly flummoxed by the sentence, “He couldn’t have wrote [for “written”] that paper without the help of his teacher”? But language, alas, isn’t as much about fairness as it is about power – the power to make an impression. The meaning in the forgoing sentence is clear enough; what’s off is the impression it may give some readers – the impression that the writer is not careful, is not educated.
The problem with first impressions, goes the saying, is that you have only one chance to make a good one. Careful verb usage allows you both to convey your meaning to an audience – and to leave them with a good first impression.
THE BASICS: VERBS
- WHAT IS IT? A verb shows action or state of being. The principle parts of a verb show the most basic forms from which all tenses are built. They are the infinitive, the present participle, the past (or preterit) tense, and the past participle. Verbals – infinitives, gerunds, participles – look like verbs but act like nouns (infinitives, gerunds) or adjectives (participles).
- WHEN DO YOU USE IT? The uses of the verbs and verbals are various, but be on guard against substituting the past tense of irregular verbs for the past participle (“might have fell” for “might have fallen”), and against dropping the ending off regular past participles (“can goods” for “canned goods”).
- WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
- The infinitive is the base form of the verb plus “to” (present) or “to have” plus the past tense (past participle).
- The gerund is the base form plus -ing. It acts like a noun.
- The present participle is the base form plus -ing, and acts like an adjective. This form is the same for both regular and irregular verbs. The past tense for regular verbs ends in -ed. For irregular verbs, the forms vary (see the List of Irregular Verbs at the end of this chapter).
- The past participle for regular verbs looks like the past tense, that is, it ends in “-ed.” The form of past participles for irregular verbs varies, though they often end in -t, -(e)n or -n(e). Past participles act like adjectives. (See the List of Irregular Verbs at the end of this chapter).
SUBJUNCTIVE
What subjunctive is and how it works:
How many times do you find yourself making wishes? We know what we do it all the time: we wish he had more time, we wish we could travel to exotic places – we sometimes even wish that these chapters were a lot shorter! Or think of how often you find yourself making “if-then” statements, such as, “If they were faster, they would have been here by now.” Or again: how often do you make statements like these: “The boss demands that all employees attend the month-end meetings.”
Every time you make a statement such as any one of these, you’re talking about conditions contrary to fact. And whenever you do that, you’re using the subjunctive mood.
“Mood” is the same word as “mode”: it indicates the form of a verb. We like to think that there’s a connection between the everyday use of a word and its grammatical use. In this instance, just as an emotional mood changes the way that we act and look, so does grammatical mood change the way that a verb acts and looks. There are three moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive.
Most verbs you encounter are in the indicative mood, which is used for statements of fact.
- Most guests fry their own papaya.
You use the imperative mood for commands:
- Fry your own papaya!
(Note that context determines whether the command is singular or plural.)
You use the subjunctive mood to express conditions contrary to fact:
- I wish the guests fried their own papaya.
- If the guests fried their own papaya, I wouldn’t have to do it for them.
- The chef demands that all guests fry their own papaya.
There are two forms of the subjunctive, which we’ll call first subjunctive and second subjunctive. Fortunately for us, there are only two tenses in the subjunctive mood, present and past, and most of the time verbs in the subjunctive mood look exactly like verbs in the indicative mood.
First Subjunctive
You use the first subjunctive in expressions of desiring or demanding which end in “that,” for example
- to ask that
- to demand that
- to desire that
- to recommend that
- to require that
- to suggest that
- it is advisable that
- it is essential that
- it is imperative that
- it is necessary that (etc.)
To form the first subjunctive, take the infinitive of the verb and drop off the “to”:
| infinitive | first subjunctive |
| to snip | snip |
| to crisp | crisp |
| to be | be |
(It’s called the “first” subjunctive, by the way, because you form it from the infinitive, the “first” or most basic form of the verb.) The only problems here are likely to be in the third person singular (he, she, it), to which, in the indicative, we’re used to adding an -s:
- The president has asked that the secretary type the minutes of each meeting of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers.
– and when you use a form of “to be”:
- The president further suggests that the minutes be posted in the clubhouse.
The first subjunctive has only a present tense, even when the principle verb is in the past tense:
- After the Dandelion Diggers ball, the president recommends (present tense) that a professional clean the clubhouse.
- After the Dandelion Diggers ball, the president recommended (past tense) that a professional clean the clubhouse.
Second Subjunctive
You use the second subjunctive in expressions that begin with “(as) if” or use the verb “to wish.”
The second subjunctive has both present and a past tenses. To form the present of the second subjunctive, use the “you” form (second person singular or plural) of the past tense:
| “you” form, past tense | second subjunctive |
| you snipped | snipped |
| you crisped | crisped |
| you were | were |
- If you snipped back a few of the lower branches, you’d get much bigger gooseberries.
- If
- “If I were younger,” sighed Zoë, “I’d join that expedition to find the lost Ruby of Rajistan.”
The past of the second subjunctive is identical to the “you” forms of the past perfect of the indicative:
| “you” form, past tense | second subjunctive |
| you had snipped | had snipped |
| you had crisped | had crisped |
| you had been | had been |
(This is why it’s called the “second” subjunctive: you use the “second” person form of the verbs to form it.) Only the forms of “to be” in the first and third persons singular present us with difficulties here:
Notice that whenever you use “if” and the second subjunctive, you’ll have either “would” or “would have” in the other clause.
Look Out!
Because the forms of the subjunctive are almost always identical to those of some form of the indicative, you don’t have to worry about making mistakes – except in using the verb “to be,” the subjunctive of which looks different from the indicative.
- It’s necessary that members be (not “are”!) present at every meeting of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers.
- The president as if she were (not “was”!) the only member of the order who’s overworked!
The key to understanding the subjunctive is to ask yourself, “Is this statement true? Is this something that has, in fact, happened?” If you answer, “Definitely not,” then you need to use the subjunctive.
Let’s look at the two examples above. In the first sentence, are the members, in fact, present? No: that’s why the speaker wants them there. In the second sentence, is this president, in fact, the only person who’s overworked? No: that’s why the speaker is complaining – everyone is overworked, not just the president. In both these sentences the speakers are expressing not facts but rather conditions contrary to fact – which is why the speakers use the subjunctive.
Be careful, however: the subjunctive is only for those cases in which we know what something is definitely not true. Look at these two sentences:
- If Edna were at the last meeting of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers, she would get things done.
- If Edna was at the last meeting of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers, I didn’t see her yesterday.
What’s the difference? In the first sentence, ask yourself, Is Edna, in fact, at the meeting? No – which is the point of the speaker’s statement. (Your other tipoff here is the “would” in the main clause.) In the second sentence however, ask yourself, Was Edna at the meeting? She may have been, she may not have been: the speaker didn’t see her. Because you can’t say “Definitely not,” you can’t use the subjunctive. Remember , You use the subjunctive mood to express conditions contrary to fact.
ANALOGY
- I wish I were in California right now.
- If I were you, I’d go there.
These two sentences use the subjunctive mood or mode. The word in the sentence that tips us off is were. We would sound foolish if we used the word were with the word I under any other circumstances. Can you imagine saying, “I were sick last week,” or “My brother wrote to me when I were in the service.” Of course not. The combination of I and were is rare but makes a particular meaning, just as the combination of two unlikely partner ingredients, creamed chestnuts and yogurt, creates the delightful French dessert Mont Blanc.
If you want to make a Mont Blanc, you combine yogurt and creamed chestnuts. If you want to express a wish or an idea which is possible but contrary to current fact, you put I (or any subject of your choice) together with were. It’s that easy. Just by combining them in the subjunctive mood, you create a sentence whose readers will automatically take it to express something which is not currently true, something which is contrary to fact!
- Alice wishes she were a ballerina. (This sentence’s use of were automatically tells us that Alice is not a ballerina.)
- Edward said, “If I were David Duchovny, I would make another movie.” (I can tell you for a fact that Edward is David Duchovny; his use of were proves that HE knows that he is not David Duchovny.)
Of course this use of the subjunctive to signal something contrary to fact takes some intentionality on your part, and a little thinking before speaking. But it is worth it. You will know what you mean, and so will everyone else.
TROUBLESPOTS AND TIPS: SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
A misunderstanding of what the subjunctive mood is and how it works may lead to errors such as these:
- If I was the treasurer of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers, we’d have a lot more parties!
- It’s essential that the treasurer allots enough fund for parties.
An instructor is likely to mark these errors as “MOOD” or “AWK” / awkward (or sometimes “WC” / word choice). To get around these errors, have a look at the following points.
You use the subjunctive mood to express conditions contrary to fact, and so you need to ask yourself, Is this, in fact, true? Has this, in fact, happened yet?
The president recommends that the party room stay locked at all times.
Ask yourself: Is the party room, in fact, locked? No? Then you need the subjunctive. The indicative form “stays,” by the way – the president recommends that the supply room stays locked a tall times – says that the supply room is, in fact, locked. But it’s not – and you need to use the subjunctive mood to express it.
- If Patty campaigned harder, she would surely be elected treasurer of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers.
Again, ask yourself: Has Patty, in fact, campaigned harder? No? You need the subjunctive.
The only time that the first subjunctive is likely to be trouble to you is in the third-person singular, as above:
- The president recommends that the party room stay (not “stays”!) locked at all times.
Because you form the first subjunctive from the infinitive, remember that the first subjunctive form of the verb “to be” is be:
- For you first meeting with the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers it’s necessary that you be (not “are”!) at least partially clothed.
You’ll probably find the second subjunctive pretty easy to manage – except, perhaps, in the forms of the verb “to be” again; because you form the second subjunctive from the past-tense second-person form of the verb (“you were”), remember that the second subjunctive form of the verb “to be” is were:
- If Lenny were (not “was”!) a member of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers, he would be a great asset,
Ask yourself: Is Lenny, in fact, a member? No? Using the indicative form “was” says so. But he’s not. Be careful, however: Use the subjunctive only when you’re expressing conditions that you know aren’t true. If there’s any doubt, use the indicative:
- If Lenny was a member of the Grand Order of Dandelion Diggers, I never knew it.
Ask yourself: Was Lenny, in fact, a member? You don’t know? He may have been, he may not have been? You don’t know for sure that he wasn’t? Then use the indicative. The subjunctive is only for those cases that you know aren’t true.
LANGUAGE IN FLUX
“If I were,” not “if I was,” we’ve been saying, and “It is necessary that he go,” not “it is necessary that he goes.” And yet how often have we heard and read (or produced ourselves) sentences just like these? In the subjunctive in English, we see and example of language in the process of changing.
There’s a strong tendency nowadays to replace the subjunctive forms with indicative forms. The roots of this change go deep into the history of the language: the forms of the subjunctive in English, even in its earliest written versions, are generally pretty similar to the indicative forms. As we’ve already seen, we users of English make relatively little distinction among our verb forms. A Latin verb, for example, may have over 130 distinct forms, all told; an English verb may have as few as four – “talk, talks, talking, talked,” for example (of course we indicate other tenses by adding an auxiliary verb, as in “I had talked” vs. “I will have talked”; but the appearance of the main verb itself remains the same.) English also has a tendency to “simplify” (although to a non-native speaker, it’s far from simple!) itself by dropping off whatever endings it has – and so it seems a natural part of this process of language change that the subjunctive may be on its way to join the pronoun “thou” in disuse.
In an e-mail, for example, or a short story, you can go ahead and write, “She demands that the eel stays in the aquarium.” Be aware, however, that in formal and academic writing, usage of the subjunctive is still widely observed. You need to know that if you, in composing a report, write, “Employees have expressed a wish that the company was more generous with its benefits,” your audience is likely to perceive you as sloppy about language, or even downright ignorant. Will your audience understand you? It’s very likely that they will. Will you have expressed yourself elegantly? It’s very likely that you won’t.
Maybe the way to go about thinking of the subjunctive is as an added tool in your language toolbox. The subjunctive automatically signals, with no further explanation, that what you’re addressing is contrary to fact. Think about the last sentence we used, “Employees have expressed a wish that the company was more generous with its benefits.” This sentence seems to say that the company was (sometime in the past) more generous with its benefits, but is no longer (What caused the change?). But that’s not what you’re trying to say at all: you’re trying to say that the company is not generous – you’re trying to express a condition contrary to fact. Another example: Let’s say that at your first job at a law firm, “Casual Fridays” have gotten a little out of control. People are wearing leotards, Groucho glasses, flippers – you name it. A memo comes from the director of personnel: “We recommend that each employee dresses more formally.” But wait a minute: the whole point is that the employees aren’t dressing more formally – and this sentence seems to say that they are – not what was intended at all.
Finally, an understanding of the subjunctive allows you to make the fine but perhaps all-important distinction between acts that may or may not have occurred, and those that definitely did not, as in these sentences:
- If he was in error, no one knew it. (He may have been, he may not have been: we don’t know.)
- If he were in error, no one would know it. (We mean a hypothetical case here – we’re imagining something that, as far as we know, isn’t true.)
The distinction between the indicative and the subjunctive may seem slight and unimportant. But knowing that difference can be a powerful asset in conveying a clear, educated-sounding message.
THE BASICS: SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD
- WHAT IS IT?: You use the subjunctive mood to express conditions contrary to fact, that is, things that are not true or have not yet happened. The subjunctive has two forms, “first” (made from the infinitive of verbs) and “second” (from the past-tense second person form of verbs).
- WHEN DO YOU USE IT? You use the first subjunctive after these phrases: to recommend that; to desire that; to demand that; to require that; to suggest that; to ask that; it is necessary that; it is essential that; it is imperative that. You use the second subjunctive in expressions that begin with “(as) if” or use the verb “to wish”
- WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? All forms of the first subjunctive look just the infinitive form of the verb; the first-form subjunctive has present-tense forms only. All forms of the second subjunctive look just like the forms for the second-person (“you”) forms of the verb; the second subjunctive present-tense and a past-tense forms only.
IRREGULAR VERBS
The following list, while not exhaustive, contains most of the verbs you’re going to run in to most often that are irregular in form or in spelling. As you’ll see, sometimes more than one form is possible (for example, knelt or kneeled); sometimes you’ll find a difference in meaning depending upon whether a verb is regular or irregular (hung versus hanged).
Infinitive Present Participle Past Tense Past Participle
(a)wake (a)waking (a)woke OR (a)waked (a)woken OR (a)waked
(a)waken (a)awakening (a)wakened (a)wakened
be being was (sg.) / were (pl.) been
beat beating beat beaten
bear (= carry) bearing bore borne
bear (= give birth) bearing bore born
become becoming became become
begin beginning began begun
bend bending bent bent
bid (= offer money) bidding bid bid
bid (= command) bidding bade bidden
bind binding bound bound
bite biting bit bitten
bleed bleeding bled bled
blow blowing blew blown
break breaking broke broken
bring bringing brought brought
build building built built
burst bursting burst burst
buy buying bought bought
catch catching caught caught
choose choosing chose chosen
cling clinging clung clung
come coming came come
cost costing cost cost
creep creeping crept crept
cut cutting cut cut
deal dealing dealt dealt
dig digging dug dug
dive diving dived OR dove dived
do doing did done
draw drawing drew drawn
dream dreaming dreamed OR dreamt dreamed OR dreamt
drink drinking drank drunk
drive driving drove driven
eat eating ate eaten
fall falling fell fallen
feed feeding fed fed
fight fighting fought fought
find finding found found
flee fleeing fled fled
fling flinging flung flung
fly flying flew flown
forbear forbearing forbore forborne
forbid forbidding forbade forbidden
forget forgetting forgot forgotten
forgive forgiving forgave forgiven
forgo forgoing forwent forgone
forsake forsaking forsook forsaken
freeze freezing froze frozen
get getting got gotten
give giving gave given
go going went gone
grind grinding ground ground
grow growing grew grown
hang (a thing) hanging hung hung
hang (a person) hanging hanged hanged
have having had had
hear hearing heard heard
hide hiding hid hidden
hit hitting hit hit
hold holding held held
hurt hurting hurt hurt
keep keeping kept kept
kneel kneeling knelt OR kneeled knelt OR kneeled
knit knitting knitted OR knit knitted OR knit
know knowing knew known
lay laying laid laid
lead leading led led
lean leaning leaned OR leant leaned OR leant
learn learning learned OR learnt learned OR learnt
leave leaving left left
leap leaping leaped OR leapt leaped OR leapt
lend lending lent lent
let letting let let
lie (= recline) lying lay lain
light lighting lighted OR lit lighted OR lit
lose losing lost lost
make making made made
mean meaning meant meant
meet meeting met met
mow mowing mowed mowed OR mown
pay paying paid paid
quit quitting quit quit
read reading read read
rid ridding rid rid
ride riding rode ridden
ring ringing rang rung
rise rising rose risen
run running ran run
say saying said said
see seeing saw seen
seek seeking sought sought
sell selling sold sold
send sending sent sent
set setting set set
sew sewing sewed sewed OR sewn
shake shaking shook shaking
shed shedding shed shed
shine (= glow) shining shone shone
shine (= polish) shining shined shined
shoot shooting shot shot
show showing showed shown
shrink shrinking shrank shrunk
shut shutting shut shut
sing singing sang sung
sink sinking sank sunk
sit sitting sat sat
sleep sleeping slept slept
slide sliding slid slid
sling slinging slung slung
slink slinking slunk slunk
slit slitting slit slit
smite smiting smote smitten
speak speaking spoke spoken
spend spending spent spent
spin spinning spun spun
spit spitting spat spat
split spitting split split
spread spreading spread spread
spring springing sprang sprung
stand standing stood stood
steal stealing stole stolen
stick sticking stuck stuck
sting stinging stung stung
stink stinking stank stunk
stride striding strode strode
strike striking stuck struck
string stringing strung strung
strive striving strove OR strived striven OR strived
swear swearing swore sworn
sweep sweeping swept swept
swell swelling swelled swelled OR swollen
swim swimming swam swum
swing swinging swung swung
take taking took taken
teach teaching taught taught
tear tearing tore torn
tell telling told told
think thinking thought thought
thrive thriving throve OR thrived thriven OR thrived
throw throwing threw thrown
thrust thrusting thrust thrust
tread treading trod trodden
wear wearing wore worn
weave weaving wove woven OR weaved
weep weeping wept wept
wet wetting wet OR wetted wet OR wetted
win winning won won
wind winding wound wound
wring wringing wrung wrung
write writing wrote written
EXERCISE
Insert into the following sentence the correct form of the verb in brackets.
- Have you ever [drive] __________ a goat-drawn carriage before?
- The upstairs chambermaid wants to know who’s [stole] __________ her second-best feather-duster.
- I told you that we shouldn’t have [go] __________ up the back staircase; now we’re lost!
- Have you [write] __________ the Countess’s address down?
- The children are confined to the nursery because they [swing] __________ on the chandelier yesterday.
- Before after tea, the housekeeper had [take] __________ our visitors to the observatory.
- The footman demands to know who has [steal] __________ his wig.
- Upon seeing us, the platypus [dive] __________ right off the dock and into the murky water.
- It’s so cold here in the observatory that my eyelids have [freeze] __________ open!
- After a few days of rest, the pigeons [begin] __________ to look a little less ruffled.