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En Bonne Forme, 8th Edition Student Website Selected Grammar Explanations in English T P S F
En Bonne Forme, 8th Edition Student Website Selected Grammar Explanations in English T P S F
Student Website
Selected Grammar Explanations in English
Chapter 16
The indicative and the subject are mood constructions. The indicative is the real-action
mood; it describes facts. The subjunctive is the mood of wishes, possibilities, and doubts.
In French, you use the subjunctive quite often, especially in dependent clauses. The
principal verb or the conjuction determines if the subjunctive is used in the dependent
clause.
There are four subjunctive tenses. In popular language, you use the present and the past
subjunctive. In literary language, you also use the imperfect and past perfect subjunctive
tenses. There is no future subjunctive tense. The present subjunctive indicates the future.
Forms
Regular Subjunctive
The majority of verbs have a regular subjunctive conjugation. You form the subjunctive
with the third person plural of the present tense. Drop the -ent to obtain the root and then
add one of the following endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent.
1. Regular Verbs
2. Irregular Verbs
b. Irregular verbs ending in -ir, -oir, and -re in the present indicative form have two
roots in the present subjunctive: the root of the third person plural of the present
tense for je, tu, il , ils and the third person of the imperfect for nous and vous.
c. The verbs croire, rire and voir use -yi- or two -i- for nous and vous.
Usage
General Rules
Odette est triste que son frère ne soit pas près d'elle.
2. If the subject of the principal verb is the same as the subject of the subordinate verb,
use the infinitive construction.
3. If the principal verb is impersonal, the subject of the subordinate verb must represent
a noun or a precise pronoun. If not, use the infinitive construction.
Subjunctive or Infinitive?
Verbs that express an opinion, a declaration, a certainty, and the verb espérer (to hope)
are followed by the indicative when they are in the affirmative form.
1. Here are the main conjunctions used before the subjunctive form:
2. For certain conjunctions, the subjunctive is the logical form to use becauce the action
that follows has not yet happened (jusqu'à ce que, avant que, pourvu que, pour
que, sans que) or contains an emotion (de peur que).
Nous allons vous expliquer cette règle jusqu'à ce que vous la compreniez.
3. Use the subjunctive form with the conjunctions avant que, pour que, de peur que,
sans que when you have two different subjects in the main and subordinate clauses.
If the subjects of the two clauses represent the same person, use a preposition and an
infinitive.
Forms
The past subjunctive form is regular for all verbs. Take the past tense of the indicative
and add the auxiliary avoir or être.
Usage
The past subjunctive form indicates that an action happened before the action of the
principal verb even if the principal verb is in the past tense.
1. In spoken language and in simple written language, you use both the present and past
subjunctive forms.
a. The present subjunctive is used to indicate that the action of the subordinate verb
happened at the same time or after the action of the principal verb, even if the
principal verb is in the past tense.
b. The past subjunctive form is used to indicate that the action happened before the
action of the principal verb.
2. In written literary language, there are two other tenses: the imperfect subjunctive and
the past-perfect subjunctive (See “Temps et constructions rares” on your Online
Study Center).