Professor Dave here, I wanna tell you about the subjunctive.
The concept of the subjunctive mood, or il congiuntivo, is very important in Italian,
and it is often difficult to understand for English speakers, because in English this
mood is either avoided or simply not recognized as it will be indentical to the indicative.
But in Italian, this mood is commonly used both in speaking and in writing, so before
we learn all the conjugations, let’s first just make sure we understand what the subjunctive
mood is, and when to use it.
The indicative is the mood of objective reality.
This would be a statement like: Luigi works in a bank.
This is a fact, it refers to an agreed upon reality, and is totally objective.
Sentences that would imply the subjunctive mood are ones that involve a subjective reality.
This is the mood of opinions and feelings, doubts and possibilities, hopes and fears.
So if we had to summarize the purpose of the subjunctive mood in a sentence, we could say
that the subjunctive describes what people think, hope, believe, or wish, rather than
the indicative, which describes things as they are.
Using the previous example, let’s modify the fact that Luigi works in a bank, and instead
say the following: I think that Luigi works in a bank.
I suggested to Luigi that he work in a bank.
I hope that Luigi works in a bank.
It is possible that Luigi works in a bank.
Again, notice that none of these sentences propose that Luigi’s employment at a bank
is a concrete reality, we just get an image of Luigi working at a bank that is a wish
or a possibility.
In Italian, when this is happening, we use the subjunctive.
The first thing to understand about using subjunctive in Italian is to remember that
while in English, we can omit the conjunction “that”, Italian will not.
Where English can use “that”, Italian will use “che”.
With this understood, let’s now go over the types of verbs that will commonly require
the use of the subjunctive, imagining the word “che” following each of them, to
give phrases like “I believe that” or “I doubt that”.
First, we have verbs of opinion.
Then there are verbs of command, or wish.
Then there are verbs of emotion.
Then there are impersonal expressions.
So these are all the verbs and phrases that we could use that would require subjunctive.
Let’s quickly mention that subjunctive will not be used when the subject of the main clause
and the subject of the dependent are the same.
That would be like in the sentence: I am afraid that I am not going to make it.
It’s true that “I am afraid that” is a verb describing fear, so it is part of the
emotion list, but in order to be followed by the subjunctive the subject in the dependent
clause must be different from the subject in the main clause.
This could mean saying something like: I am afraid that you won’t make it, she is afraid
that they won’t make it, and so forth.
This is an important rule, so remember it!
Other phrases that are phrases of certainty also will not use subjunctive.
But this does not apply for the negative, which would add to the doubt.
So as we said, subjunctive is a mood that implies subjectivity.
Opinion, fear, desire, and so forth.
This is different the indicative, which implies objectivity, or things as they are.
Without getting hung up on the philosophical implications of Italian grammar, let’s move
on from this new understanding of the subjunctive mood and use the next few tutorials to go
through all the tenses that are used with the subjunctive.