Why the Subjunctive is Like Instagram
Learning a language and confused by what the subjunctive is? Here’s an easy way of getting your head round it.
This article has been sparked by a recent conversation in a Facebook group for language learners. One member was expressing their frustration with the subjunctive: he said he’s been progressing well with his Italian lessons, but still can’t understand what on earth the subjunctive is for or what it means. He was pleading for help in explaining it in simple terms.
As a translator, I’ve come across the subjunctive in several languages — and it’s easy to be put off by all the grammatical terms and jargon, especially as we’re often not taught them for English (even though we have them in English too!). So, my suggestion was to draw an analogy with something else entirely: Instagram.
Think of the subjunctive like an Instagram filter
When you create a post on Instagram, you upload a picture and then get the option of editing it with a filter. It’s still the same picture, showing the same thing, but the filter changes the feel, or tone, or mood of that picture.
That’s what the subjunctive is: it’s a ‘mood’.
Languages have more than one ‘mood’. What you’d think of as the ‘normal mood’, the one we use most of the time without thinking about it, is called the indicative mood. It’s for all the stuff that’s real and true and definite. The subjunctive mood, on the other hand, is for all the stuff that’s hypothetical or unreal or uncertain.
Let’s take the following sentence in English as an example: I know that she is fine.
If we think of this as our Instagram photo, our ‘picture’ is of her being fine, in the present tense (i.e. she is currently fine, here and now, in the present time). Our ‘filter’ is the indicative mood, because it’s something I know to be true (I know she’s ok).
In Italian this becomes: So che lei sta bene — where ‘sta’ is the present tense in the indicative mood for ‘she is’ (from the verb ‘stare’, meaning ‘to be’ when referring to a person’s mental or physical state).
Compare this with the following sentence: I hope that she is fine.
Here, our ‘picture’ is still of her being fine, in the present tense — but we’ve added an element of uncertainty (I’m not sure whether she’s ok, but I’m hoping so), so our ‘filter’ has changed to the subjunctive mood.
In Italian this becomes: Spero che lei stia bene — where ‘stia’ is the present tense in the subjunctive mood for ‘she is’.
This example sees a slight change in spelling, but the subtle shift in meaning alters our picture quite a bit. Like clouds blocking the sun and making a landscape a little darker.
Italian happens to use the subjunctive mood far more than English, so it’s a matter of learning which expressions and verbs use it. French also uses the subjunctive with certain expressions that convey a wish, a desire or a hope. German uses the subjunctive in reported speech to show that the words quoted are someone else’s and may or may not be true. In English we tend to use words like ‘allegedly’, ‘it is reported that’ or ‘he claims that’ to convey this instead.
English uses the subjunctive too!
Although the use of the subjunctive has declined in English — which, perhaps, is partly why many people are unfamiliar with the term and why it can strike horror in the hearts of many foreign language learners — it does still exist in some set expressions.
Some examples include:
If I were you…
Long live the Queen!
God save the Queen!
Here, ‘were’, ‘live’ and ‘save’ are all subjunctive. Why? Well, the first expression is a hypothetical situation, as I’m not actually you. The second and third express a hope or wish that the Queen lives a long time and that she is saved by God.
Using the indicative for the last sentence would change the meaning: instead of it being a prayer, it would become a statement that God is actively in the process of saving the Queen from something.
In all honesty, I don’t remember being taught this about English in English lessons at school. Sometimes you just learn how to say things but you don’t know the grammatical constructions or the names behind them. Often we only come across these terms when learning other languages, which can make them seem daunting.
Grammar doesn’t have to be scary, though. Changing how you look at things can often help you break them down and demystify them. And the wonderful thing about learning other languages is that you also learn so much more about your own at the same time.
