SUBJUNCTIVE

THE PRESENT SUBJUNCTIVE:

INFINITIVE WITHOUT ”TO”
 Set expressions:
God bless you.
Heaven forbid that.
May the best man win.
 After verbs: demand, require, suggest, insist, propose,
order, advise
We demand that John Smith be present.
should be present

He insisted that I not go.not go there.

should

They ordered that I be there.

should be there.
 After nouns derived from these verbs:
It is our wish/decision/order that all members of the
club be asked to express their opinion.

 After adjectives :
It is necessary/vital/important/essential/imperative
that the army withdraw.
I WISH/IF ONLY+WOULD(N’T)+INFINITIVE
 For 2nd or 3rd person only when we want a
situation to change because it is annoying.
I wish/If only the train would hurry up.
I wish/If only it would stop raining.
 If the wish is impossible or when you refer to
your own annoying habits, you use I wish/If only
+ past tense.
I wish/If only my sister was a boy.
I wish/If only I didn’t bite my nails.
PAST AND PERFECT SUBJUNCTIVE
1. If only I knew what you wanted, I would help.
2. If only I had known what you wanted, I would have
helped you.

No.1 refers to the PRESENT and is expressed with the

PAST tense and therefore it is PAST
SUBJUNCTIVE.
No.2 refers to the PAST and is expressed with the
PAST PERFECT tense and therefore it is PERFECT
SUBJUNCTIVE.
I wish I were you.
I wish I had been at the party yesterday.

Suppose he proposed to you.

Suppose he had proposed to you when Peter was there.

She talked to me as if/though she did not know me.

She talked to me as if/though she had never seen me.

It’s high time we started building a new house.

but … It’s high time for us to start building a new house.

I’d sooner/rather you told her about the accident.

but … I’d rather tell her about the accident.
EXPRESS WISHES AND REGRETS ABOUT THESE
SITUATIONS WITH I WISH/IF ONLY
 Mary hasn’t bought any wine.
I wish Mary had bought some wine.
 He is not in town.
I wish he were in town.
 They don’t have enough money.
If only they had enough money.
 I was too rude to him.
If only I hadn’t been too rude to him.
 The weather is awful.
If only the weather wasn’t awful.
IT’S HIGH / ABOUT TIME

 They have lived in that small apartment for

20years.
 It’s getting dark. We’d better leave.

 You haven’t asked me out since last spring.

 You have put on too much weight.