Simple explanation of the French Subjunctive
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First, understanding the purpose of tenses
First we have the tenses for what is "real" - I am eating an apple, I ate an apple, I will eat an apple. We consider that we are speaking about reality on the timeline.
Next, we have the tenses to express wishes or possibilities. These are the conditional tenses. I would eat an apple / I could have eaten an apple. We are no longer in the "real".
Lastly, we have the subjunctive to express the "ideal world" - positively or negatively. It is important the she eat an apple/It was crucial that he eat an apple.
Do we have this in English?
Yes, we do have this in English but the subjunctive is a lot less visible for 2 reasons: First, we don’t start as many sentences by saying “It’s is important that…” / “It is lucky that…” which would lead to a subjunctive. (but not always)
Second, even if we are technically in the subjunctive we would not see it except for he/she/it. And it mostly works for the verb “to be” such as “It is important that we be on time.” If we switch verbs it gives us “It is important that we eat regularly”, in which the verb “eat” shows no meaningful change with the present tense. “We eat regularly”.
If we use “he/she/it” to say the same, the subjunctive makes itself visible once more. “it is important that he eat regularly”. The big difference with English, is that French has a subjunctive that is more visible and that changes many more verbs in a much more emphatic way.
Referring to the pictures above, as soon as we say “May the Force be with you” or “God save the King/Queen”, we are indeed expressing an “ideal reality” in which the Force is with us and the monarchs are saved.
But the Subjunctive is not perfect!
The 3 boxes above give us a broad classification of tenses and their use. Reality/wishes/ideal world. But the Subjunctive is indeed not perfect and sometimes makes its way into the real world.
In French, you would tell your guests “I am happy that you be here.” even though they are actually here in reality.
There is usually a degree of emotion when we use the Subjunctive. We add an emotion to our sentence by saying “I am happy that…it is regrettable that…It is probable that….”
This emotion can also take the form of a comment. “It is strange that Mark be sitting on a bench alone.” We have embedded the sentence in a comment about reality: “It is strange that…” Other comments might be “It is wonderful that….It is regrettable that….It is unusual that….”
A comment usually includes a certain emotion. For example: “I love that everything be clean.” or “It is amazing that everything be so clean!”
Even though the thing is actually clean in reality, we are embedding this observation in a comment that contains an emotion.
But we can’t say “I see that everything be clean” because the act of seeing is not an emotion.
As soon as we speak about reality by means of a comment or an emotion, we can consider that we are bringing it upwards to the “ideal reality” or downwards to the “un-ideal reality” (purple arrow on the drawing)
Let's recap what we saw so far
We speak of reality
“Look, Joe is fishing in the pond!”
We add a comment
“It’s amazing that Joe be fishing in the pond!”
We add an emotion
“I love that that Joe be fishing in the pond!”
The three examples above explain in a large part how to use the Subjunctive in French. We are either adding a comment or an emotion to a statement.
The next step is to learn the types of sentences that lead to a Subjunctive (it is necessary to… / it is unlikely that….) and of course how the verb itself behaves. If you have already learned some French, you will know that the ER verbs show no noticeable difference with the present tense apart from ALLER. Then of course, nous/vous take the imparfait in the Subjunctive.
The other 3 categories of verbs RE/OIR /IR change a lot more in the Subjunctive than the ER verbs.
There are also 11 irregular verbs whose change in the Subjunctive can’t be guessed. This means that “Je vais” (I go) becomes “que j’aille” (that I go) and “Je suis” ( I am) becomes “que je sois” (That I be).
These have to be learned separately because there is no way to guess what they will “look like” in the Subjunctive.
What to do next?
1. Understand that -ER verbs don’t differ from the present tense in the subjunctive apart from ALLER. (que je demande, que tu demandes, qu’il demande, qu’ils demandent)
2. Understand that nous/vous causes the Imparfait to happen : que nous demandions/ que vous demandiez.
3. Understand that ALLER is one of the 11 unpredictable verbs: que j’aille, que tu ailles, qu’il aille…
4. Understand that you must study 11 unpredictable verbs by heart.
5. Understand that for IR and ER, nous and vous always take the imparfait. The rest of the pronouns are based on the present tense of ils/elles.
Show, don't tell!
A typical ER verb
que je demande
que tu demandes
qu’il demande
que nous demandions
que vous demandiez
qu’ils demandent
A typical IR verb
que je finisse
que tu finisses
qu’il finisse
que nous finissions
que vous finissiez
qu’ils finissent
A typical RE verb
que je comprenne
que tu comprennes
qu’il comprenne
que nous comprenions
que vous compreniez
qu’ils comprennent
A typical irregular
que je doive
que tu doives
qu’il doive
que nous devions
que vous deviez
qu’ils doivent
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To conclude
The Subjunctive is not the beast it’s made out to be once we understand that it doesn’t serve to speak of what is “real”. Meaning: what did happen, is happening or will happen.
When we say “the flowers will look pretty there” we are speaking within a “real” timeline. Once we add a comment or emotion, we must switch to the Subjunctive. “I find it likely that the flowers be pretty there.”
Watch out that “peut-être que” (maybe) does not constitute a comment nor an emotion. “Maybe the flowers will look pretty there” is the same in French: “Peut-être que les fleurs seront belles là.”
Just study the 11 verbs that are irregular and for the rest, just remember that nous and vous always lead to an imparfait.
The more we use the Subjunctive the more it makes sense to us. At one point it will become automatic to say “Il faut que j’aille” (correct) instead of “Il faut que je vais” (incorrect) simply because you will never have encountered the second example.
If you are interested in knowing more, we cover this in our exercises. At the most, 2 hours’ work should enable you to master this “oh-so-French” tense. Thanks for stopping by.
