University of the Autonomous Regions of the

Nicaraguan Caribbean Coast

URACCAN
Mishelley Bennett

Explain

Indicative Forms of Verbs

The indicative form of the verb in old English as in present English is focus
on the same thing it is used for making statements and asking questions. The
Old English preterit was used for events that happened in the past, same as
in present English and the present tense was used for all other times, that is,
for present and future events and for habitual actions.

Subjunctive and Imperative Forms

The subjunctive did not indicate person but only tense and number. The
endings were alike for both tenses: singular -e and plural -en. The
subjunctive was used in main clauses to express wishes and commands:
Example God help us/ She shall not keep dogs.

The imperative singular of cē pan and helpan was without ending, but for
some verbs it ended in -e or -a. As in Modern English, imperatives were used
for making commands.

Nonfinite Forms
Old English verbs had four nonfinite forms: two infinitives and two
participles.

Indicative verb forms are the 'normal' verb forms.

*40. Subjunctive mood causes most difficulty, because special forms for the
subjunctive have almost died out in PDE. We use the subjunctive mood to
suggest hypothesis, conjecture or volition; and we usually express it by
means of Auxiliary Verbs: MAY God help us .. Even though it MAY happen .. If
I MAY be so bold .. MIGHT I suggest ..? etc. However, even this has become
formal nowadays, and we frequently use 'normal' (= 'indicative') verb forms
instead - 'Even though it happens ..' etc. OE, however, used special
'subjunctive', forms of the verb. Remnants of these forms still appear in PDE,
though their use is now considered by many people to be 'over-proper' or
'formulaic': 'If I WERE you ..', 'So BE it then ..', 'We insist that he COME ..',
'God HELP us ..'. 'Long LIVE the Queen'. The Subjunctive mood in OE is
especially frequent in certain subordinate clauses; see Sentence Structure
below.

Non-finite verb forms

Non-finite verb forms do not indicate person, number or tense.

The non-finite forms of the verb go are:

 go (infinitive)

I can't go with you.
Unfortunately, she had to go.
Do you really go out with her?
I didn't go to work today.
I want to go home.

 going (gerund)

I like going to the cinema.

Carol suggested going for a walk.
Going faster would have been really dangerous.

 gone (past participle)

Jack has gone away on holiday.

By the time Sue returned, the others had gone back to their cars.
I wish I had gone to university.

 going (present participle)

I'm going to a concert tonight.

I heard my dad going up the stairs.
Going across the bridge last night, I saw someone swimming in the river.

In Old English, there occur three moods (indicative, subjunctive and

imperative) in the present tense and two moods in the past tense.
 Although there are three moods in the present tense, only the indicative,
apart from the subjunctive plural, is marked by distinct endings: singular -e,
-st, -eþ and plural -aþ. The subjunctive and imperative singular have the
same ending as 1st person singular indicative and also the imperative plural
is identical with its indicative correspondent. Only the subjunctive plural has
a different marking: -en. Subjunctive and imperative are just recognizable
via meaning.

In the past tense, only four endings are distinct: 1st and 3rd person
indicative singular are marked with -d-e, 2nd person singular with -d-st and
the plural is marked with the ending -d-on. The imperative does not exist at
all and also the subjunctive is reduced to the plural which is marked with -d-
en.

English. The present indicative of most verbs in modern English has the same form

as the infinitive, except for the third-person singular form, which takes the ending -[e]s.
The verb be has the forms am, is, are. For details see English verbs.

The indicative mood is a verb form that makes a statement or asks a question.

For example: Jack sings every Friday. (This is a verb in the indicative mood.

1. The subjunctive mood is used to talk about desires, doubts, wishes,

conjectures, and possibilities.
2. The indicative mood is used to talk about facts and other statements that are
believed to be true and concrete.
3. The imperative mood is used to give commands.