Image #1: You have now seen all the active forms of the subjunctive: present, perfect, imperfect and pluperfect. There are also passive forms, but we will look at those separately. Always remember with the subjunctive: keep it slow and steady!
Becoming familiar with the uses takes time – and practice, especially reading in context. However, recognising the subjunctive is fairly straightforward because there are distinct ‘markers’ that tell you what tense is involved.
Images #2 and #3: Here, we will look at how to recognise the present, imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive. We’ll look at the perfect subjunctive separately.
Think of the sounds of the subjunctives:
[i] Pluperfect subjunctives hISS …
amāvISSem
habuissēs
vīxisset
audīvisset
[ii] Imperfect subjunctives gRowl …
amāRēmus
habērētis
vīverent
audīrent
[iii] … and wE present subjunctives fEAr A lIAr
amEm
habEĀs
vīvAt
audIAt
Are there a few exceptions? Yes, there are, and those were shown when the individual tenses were discussed in earlier posts - but there are so few that it’s worth remembering:
“Pluperfect subjunctives hISS, imperfect subjunctives gRowl, and wE present subjunctives fEAr A lIAr.” Try saying that on the bus going home from work, and see what happens!
Image #4: all the verbs are subjunctives. Complete the table by [1] ticking the tense, and indicating [2] the person and [3] the number:
