Session on Subjunctive Mood.
Look at this sentence here.
Do you think there is a problem with this sentence?
Do you think this should be "was"?
If I tell you that "were" is the correct usage, can you answer
why? If not, don't worry, just concentrate on this video.
To begin with,
moods in the English language. Subjunctive is only one of
the three moods.
Overall, there are three moods - indicative mood, imperative, and subjunctive.
Indicative mood is used to express facts or opinions, and it
is also used to ask questions.
This is the most commonly used mood in the English language,
and most sentences, including this one here, is in the indicative
mood. Imperative mood is used to express commands.
"Jack must eat."
Subjunctive mood is used to express possibilities.
In this video we will be delving deep into this mood,
the subjunctive mood, as this is of great interest to the GMAT.
An Overview of Subjunctive Mood. The subjunctive mood is used
to explore conditional or imaginary situations.
It can be tricky to use, which partially explains why many
speakers and writers forego it in candid conversations.
However, it is quite useful and aesthetically pleasing, and
careful users of English language attempt to preserve
the subjunctive mood.
If you can appreciate why "I wish I were a king." is the correct
usage, you probably relate to the grammatical aesthetics.
Uses of Subjunctive Mood.
There are three broad uses.
First use is to express a situation contrary to the fact.
Let's see this in detail. In expressing a situation contrary
to the fact,
using subjunctive mood,
the plural form of verb is used.
Please note the "plural form of verb"
bit here, very important.
Let's understand this by an example, "If I were the Prime
Minister, politics would be cleaner."
Please understand, it is something which is contrary to the
facts. I am not the Prime Minister, and in my view,
the politics is not clean enough.
So, the information presented here is contrary to the fact;
therefore, plural form of verb has been used here, along
with an "if". The sentence is correct; please mark the use of "were"
rather than "was" for the singular "I".
This is because of the subjunctive nature of information here.
"were" is the correct subjunctive verb here. This sentence would
not be correct.
So, "If I was..." is incorrect;
"If I were..." is correct.
It is crucial to understand this construction.
The "if... would" construction, it is a subjunctive trigger.
"If I was a professional sportsman, I would be fit.",
so, you see this "if... would" construction here.
This is suggestive that the nature of information presented
here is subjunctive.
A side note here, "then" is not needed here; "then" is implied;
writing it would be redundant.
You say "if cause comma effect"; "then" is silent. Back to the subjunctive way.
"If I were a professional sportsman, I would be fit.",
this sentence is correct.
Once again, "If I were..." is the right usage because of the deployment
of subjunctive mood.
See, meaning matters.
Please do not start applying this "If... were" construction every
time you see an "if" usage.
It's not that every time the nature of information is subjunctive.
Can you try answering why not
the usage is "if... were" here and why
"if... is" is correct? Please pause the video and try answering
that. The answer is that "if... is" is correct because the nature
of information presented here is simply conditional.
It is not contrary to the fact.
Remember this slide?
This "if... were" usage is for expressing situation contrary to
the fact, and the information presented here in this sentence
is simply conditional.
"If A, then B"; it is not contrary to facts and, therefore,
the information is not subjunctive in nature.
See, in this example, the information presented was contrary
to the fact.
"If I were a professional sportsman,...", the intended meaning
is that I am not a professional sportsman, and if I were,
something would happen.
So, very important. As almost always on GMAT, rules can take
you only so far;
it is about meaning, end of the day.
Second use of subjunctive mood - To Express a Wish or Hypothesis.
In expressing a wish or hypothesis using subjunctive mood,
the plural form of verb is used.
Look at this example here.
"I wish I were a king.",
the sentence is alright.
Please mark the use of "were" rather than "was" for the singular
"I". This is correct because the nature of information presented
here is subjunctive in nature, and, therefore, "were" is the correct
subjunctive verb here.
One more example, "The space scientists postulate that the
magic particle exists."
You see, in this earlier example here this was a wish and,
therefore, plural verb.
In this case, "postulate",
so, this is a hypothesis, and, therefore, plural form of verb is needed.
"exists" is singular;
you need "exist"
here. "exist",
this is a correct sentence.
Third, usage of subjunctive mood - To Express Command, Demand
Suggestion, Necessity.
In application of subjunctive mood to express command,
demand, suggestion, or necessity, the base form of verb is
used. Let's take an example.
"The teacher asked Jack that he recites the poem."
Do you think this is correct?
No, this is not correct because "asked" here suggests a command,
and, therefore, the base form of verb, the verb that is used
with the infinitive, the "to + verb" form-
this form of verb is needed.
So what do you say? "to recite",
and, therefore, the base form of verb for "recites" is "recite".
It would be incorrect to call it plural;
it's just that the base form of verb is needed, and, therefore,
"recite" and not "recites" will be the correct usage.
See the base form of verb, "recites" is "recite".
Okay, so, please understand, a common, correct sentence structure
in such cases will turn out to be "subject + bossy verb
+ "that" + base form of verb".
Let's see some examples.
"The workers demanded that..." -
so, it's a clear demand here - "...the managing director resign."
You see subject here; the subject is "workers', bossy verb which
is "demanded", then "that", so, "that" here, and base form of verb
is needed, and, therefore, "resign".
In case you face difficulty in figuring out what the base
form of the verb is, think what will come with "to".
You will not say "to resigns"; you will say "to resign", and,
therefore, "resign" is the base form of verb.
This sentence is correct because demand is reflected in "demanded
that". One more example. "The teacher recommends that..." -
You clearly see "recommends" means suggestion, followed by
"that", and, therefore, subjunctive is at work.
You have a subject "teacher", followed by bossy verb, which
is "recommends", followed by "that", and then base form of verb
and, therefore, "revise" is the correct usage.
You may think that "student" is something singular, and, therefore,
"revises" would be right.
Yes, otherwise, it would be right.
But because of the subjunctive nature of information here,
the correct usage here would be "revise", although the subject
involved here is "student", something singular.
Because of the subjunctive nature of this information,
you have subjunctive at work, and "recommend that" should
be followed by "revise" and not "revises".
One more example, "essential" followed by "that" means the nature
of information presented is around necessity here, and, therefore,
subjunctive is at work. Because of the "necessity" being
reflected, "...essential that the judge "hear"..." would be the right
usage. You may think that "judge" is singular, and, therefore,
"hears" would be the right usage.
Yes, generally.
But in this case, because of the subjunctive nature of the
information, "judge hear" would be the right usage.
Then, please be aware of this
"that... be" construction.
A very common subjunctive structure is: "subject + bossy
verb + "that" + something "be" done".
Let's understand this through one example.
"The judge ordered that...",
so, you have a subject here in the "judge", then you have a
bossy verb in "ordered", then you have "that" here, and then
you have "...the accused be taken into custody", suggesting
the something "be" done part of the information.
So, very, very important, the "that...be" structure, suggesting
subjunctive mood at work. One more similar example, "The judge
ordered that the accused be taken away by the cop."
The sentence is correct, "subject, ("The judge") + bossy verb
("ordered") + "that" + something "be" done,
("...the accused be taken away".)"
So, an important slide here. For expressing command, demand,
suggestion, necessity,
we discussed two key structures.
First was "subject + bossy verb + "that" + base form of verb".
And, the second structure was "subject + bossy verb +
"that" + something "be" done".
An example of each here, you may just want to pause the video
and absorb this.
A very important slide.
Now, we move into identifying the subjunctive triggers.
Overall, three key structures, the "if... were" construction,
the "bossy verb + something "be" done" construction, and the
"bossy verb + "that" + base form of verb" construction.
The first structure here is for referring to information
that is contrary to facts,
and the second and third structures are for suggesting command,
demand, suggestion, necessity.
Here, you have a list of some frequently used bossy verbs.
And here are some wishful verbs,
a list of wishful ones.
Remember the three key subjunctive structures, "if + plural
form of verb".
An example here.
Second, "subject + bossy verb + "that" + base form of
verb", an example here.
Third, "subject + bossy verb + "that" + something "be"
done", an example here.
Very important slide.
You may want to take a print of it for ease of revision.
Let us now apply whatever we learned, by solving some exercises.
Please pause the video and solve these four questions on this slide.
The first one here, it says "necessary".
So, this shows necessity, followed by "that",
so, definitely a subjunctive trigger.
"It is necessary that the guard...", so, base form of verb is needed.
"monitor", what will be the base form of verb?
Try to think, "to monitor", and, therefore, "monitor" itself is the
correct answer here.
"It is necessary that the guard monitor the main entrance all night."
Look at the second question here.
"insisted", so, this is a bit of suggestion and necessity, so, bossy verb
followed by "that",
a subjunctive trigger.
"...the promises made to the public be honored" would be the right
usage here.
Look at the third one here.
This is a trap.
It's important to just not blindly apply the concepts.
Remember, meaning is always the key here.
"Jack told Lily...", "told" is not subjunctive in nature, and, therefore,
we cannot simply have the base form of verb here.
We need to have a verb that agrees with the singular "he" here.
The right answer here is "like". I really hope you got
this one right.
Look at question four here. "requires that", so, clearly necessity
followed by "that", a subjunctive trigger.
"....the accused be presented in the court within 48 hours of arrest."
If you got all four right, good job.
But please do not settle for anything less than all four
correct. Please go back and solve
the exercises. Once again, all the correct answers here.
Now, let's do one more exercise.
Please pause the video and solve these three questions here.
"The dietician recommended that...",
so, a bossy verb + "...that Suzie...".
What do you think should come here?
"..."reduce" her daily sodium intake."
Look at the second one.
"The law mandates...", so, a bossy verb, "order" + "that".
What do you think will come here?
This is a bit challenging.
"..."helmets be worn" by everyone while driving a motorcycle."
And this is our favorite, the
"if.... would" construction,
so, "would" needs to come here.
It's a hypothetical, and, therefore, we have an "if" here; we
have a "would" here,
and, therefore, the plural form of verb, "were" needs to come
here. I hope you got all three questions right.
If not, please go back and solve again.
We will now be solving some GMAT-like questions.
Here is a slide with all the correct answers for you.
Let's get down to solving some GMAT-like questions.
Here is the first one.
Please pause the video and try solving it yourself.
First of all, "advisors who recommended" is needed, "who"
is a must here, and, therefore answer choices A and B should be eliminated.
I am not getting into the depth of other concepts here.
We are interested in the subjunctive bit involved in this
question. "who recommended", so, clearly a recommendation
here followed by "that".
Bossy verb + "that" + base form of verb is needed.
So, "abdicates" is not going to be right, we need an "abdicate"
here. This must stay. A very interesting answer
choice here. "recommended him to abdicate". Without knowledge of subjunctive,
you may be tempted to choose this answer choice, but now
that you have just understood this concept, you know that
since the nature of information here is subjunctive, the "bossy
verb + "that" + base form of verb" construction is the preferred usage.
D is the correct answer choice.
One more question here.
Please pause the video and solve it yourself.
So, because of such and such reason, this person "insisted",
a bossy nature of information, "insisted that"; so, choices
C, D, and E fail to deploy a subjunctive structure where the nature of
information is subjunctive. And we have an answer choice that
duly applies the subjunctive construction.
So, C, D, and E can be eliminated.
It's between A and B now.
Bossy verb, "insisted" + "that" + something "be" done is
the right usage.
Choice B maintains a correct subjunctive construction.
Choice A fails to do so, and, therefore, choice A should be
eliminated. Let's confirm choice B once.
Because of such and such reason, this person insisted that
they "be denied", as in "...communists... be denied permission to participate in elections."
"Bossy verb + "that" + something "be" done".
B is the correct answer choice.
Here is the last question for you.
Please pause the video and solve it yourself.
You see that there are some independent clauses here, so, we
can just focus on the last independent clause. From here to
here is what really matters here.
"...the subjunctive mood is aesthetically pleasing, and it would
be a loss...".
Remember, this "comma and" construction is equivalent to a
semicolon. So, "...it would be a loss...", if you see some information
which is contrary to the fact: subjunctive mood is "not" going away
So, to say something like "if it was to go away" is contrary
to the fact, hypothetical.
Therefore, "...if..."were"..." would be the right usage. Answer choices which
do not use "were" are not going to be right.
A, B, C, and D can be eliminated.
"if it were to go away" would be the right usage,
E is the correct answer choice.
I hope you understood the concept. And, yes, subjunctive mood
is indeed aesthetically pleasing! And it would be a great
loss if subjunctive were to go away.
But no, it is an important concept on GMAT. It is not going anywhere.
So, this was the concept friends.
To apply this concept on a variety of problems, please move to the concerned exercise.
Thanks for watching.