In today's lesson I'm going to teach you about the subjunctive, also called the subjunctive mood. This is an advanced grammar topic but I've divided this lesson into six simple steps. Verb forms. Verbs. Adjectives. The second conditional. Wish, and set phrases. If you're already confused don't worry, I will explain everything step by step. And at the end of this lesson I have a test for you with 10 questions. At the end of this lesson can you let me know your score in the comments below? Did you get 10 out of 10? Or maybe just four out of 10? Let me know. My name is Arnel, let's start. Part one: Verb forms. Let's go back to basics just for a moment. You can see I've chosen two random verbs, the very common verbs eat and do. You can see: I eat. You eat. He/she/it eats. I do. You do. He/she/it does etc... I also have present be and past be. I think you're already familiar with these. I mean this is kind of one of the first things you learn when you start learning English. So why am I showing these to you? Well, in the subjunctive things change. You can see there is only one verb form for all subjects. What? He eat? She eat? It do? Is that correct? I be? You be? He be/ she be/it be? That might sound weird but yes, it's correct in the subjunctive. I want you to keep this in mind as we continue through the lesson. Part one, done. Let's move on to part two of this pyramid, verbs. Okay, I have a list of verbs that are often followed by the subjunctive. In today's lesson I'm not going to explain the meanings of these verbs because I really want to focus on the grammar. Use your favorite dictionary if any of these verbs are new for you. What do these verbs have in common... No, I'm going to change my question. When a speaker uses these verbs, is the speaker going to do the action? Or do they expect someone else to do the action? They expect someone else to do the action. I recommend that you do, a. I suggest that you do, b. I command that you do, c. So if we want to think about the subjunctive as a person, it would be Mr lazy. Mr lazy is not going to do the action, he wants someone else to do it. I recommend. I suggest. I request. I insist. I command. I demand. So you can see, these verbs express something we want. And Mr lazy is so lazy that he only has one verb form for all subjects. Remember part one. Okay, let's do a few examples. The doctor suggested that Rebecca take iron tablets. Verb/that/subject/subjunctive/verb. Notice how I'm using take, not takes. This might seem a bit weird because normally we add the s or es to that third person singular form. Like, Rebecca takes iron tablets every day. But that's not the subjunctive. Bobby recommended that Abby watch Oppenheimer. Verb. That. Subject. Subjunctive. Verb. I've given you two examples so far, but I just want to remind you that these verbs here can of course be followed by other structures. For example: I recommend cooking pancakes in Sun flower oil instead of butter. Here I have recommend plus gerund, that ing form. That also works. So you might be thinking, why should I use the subjunctive? The subjunctive is formal. You'll mainly see it in written English. You might see it in a work email or the news, like this article from the BBC. Having studied art at school he went on to art college in London where the Principal suggested that he go into design. Yes, you could absolutely use the subjunctive in spoken English, but you'll mainly hear it in formal environments. Kevin's boss insisted that he take time off work to recover from his accident. And when a person takes time off, this means they take a break from work. For example, last month I took two weeks off. I went on vacation. Insisted the past simple, shouldn't it be took? Shouldn't it be consistent? No, the subjunctive has one verb form. And if you want to change the tense that happens with the main verb. For example, Kevin's boss will insist. Future simple. Kevin's boss has insisted. Present perfect. Let's look at an article from Yahoo sports. The company says it can't do so because the US Navy is insisting that it stay open. You can see the present continuous is being used and we keep the subjunctive verb the way it is. Okay, let's do six more example sentences rapid fire. In English when we say rapid fire, we mean a person gives a lot of examples or they ask a lot of questions. Like in an interview very quickly, one after the other. Six examples, rapid fire. I'm sure Thomas will ask that Jim be his best man. And a best man is the groom's number one one man at his wedding. The best man could be a brother, a best friend, a relative. It has been requested that Mr Samuel leave his position voluntarily. In other words, the company wants him to quit. The terrorists are demanding that the President grant them safe passage for their escape. Grant is a formal way to say give. Give, okay, here you go. The general has commanded that all soldiers be ready for battle at dawn. Anne has proposed that the new intern start in the sales department. The Queen of Hearts ordered that all white white roses be painted red. This last example here is from one of my favorite stories of all time, Alice in Wonderland. In this story the evil Queen of Hearts doesn't want the roses to be white so she wants her workers to paint them red. And you can also see, be painted. Why is there a double verb there? Well this is the passive voice. That works as well. How do we make the subjunctive negative? Well we just add not before the verb. Okay, I know there's been a lot of information so far, but I want to do one more thing before we move on to part three. We've looked at verbs. But if there is a noun form of one of these verbs, that also works. Let's go back to my first example, the doctor suggested that Rebecca take iron tablets. Let's use the noun. I agree with the doctor's suggestion that Rebecca take iron tablets. The noun also works. Part two done. Let's move on to part three of this pyramid, adjectives. I have good news, we did most of the hard work in part two. I have these adjectives here. And just like the verbs in part two, these adjectives express something we want. It's highly important that our plan remains secret. Adjective, that. Subject/subjunctive/verb. Hmm... Is it possible to say remains? It remains. Well because the subjunctive is really formal, and because normally we do add s or es to the verb, you may hear native speakers not using the subjunctive. Someone might say it remains. In my opinion, use the subjunctive. Especially if you have an English exam. But just don't be surprised if you hear a native speaker not using this formal structure. Why is it essential that I be present at the meeting? Most teachers agree it's desirable that students not use their phones in the classroom. Part three done. Let's move on to part four of this pyramid, the second conditional. The second conditional. Well, you might be thinking what happened to the first conditional? Well the subjunctive is seen in the second conditional. In English there are four main conditionals: 0 1 2 and 3. And if you're not familiar with the conditionals don't worry you can still follow today's lesson, but I'm only going to focus on the second conditional. If you want more information on the conditionals, I do have two videos on my channel. I suggest watching this one first, and this one second. And I know many students do struggle with the conditionals, so I did put together an info pack to help my students. There are 61 pages with over 200 example sentences. There are also exercises and explanations. This is available on my store and I'll leave the link down below for you if you're interested. Okay, second conditional. What's the structure? If plus past simple, would/could/might, plus base verb. If I had more time I would read and exercise more. If my sister lived near me I could visit her every day. You can see: if/past simple/ would/could or might/plus that base verb. When you use a second conditional it's really important to remember we're speaking about the present or the future. Again, when you look at these examples it's expressing something we want. We don't have these things, it's something we want. Past simple? But we're talking about the present or future? Yes, think about it like this. Now this is the present, this is the reality, and I'm close to you. But the past simple kind of takes us away from reality. Hello I'm way back here, I'm not reality now, this is something you're dreaming of. So remember that, it's hypothetical. So that past simple, that grammar, really helps us separate the reality and a hypothetical situation. Complete this sentence with your own idea: If I had $5 million I would... What would you do? This example gives you a good feeling of something you don't have, but you would like. If you already have $5 million think of a different example. Here I have the past be forms, finally we're getting to the Past be forms. You can see the same for all subjects, be Mr lazy. If I were British, I would have a British accent. But I'm American, so I don't have a British accent. If my dog weren't afraid of water, we could go swimming together. If Tess were here, she might be able to help me fix my computer. And it's important to note that yes, many native speakers do use was instead of were. So don't be surprised if you hear that. Once again use were, because it's usually considered more correct. Especially for your exams. Part four done. Let's move on to part five of this pyramid, wish. Wish when we wish we want something, just like the verbs in part two. Just like the adjectives in part three. Just like the second conditional, we want something that we don't have or we don't have yet. Let's start with the noun. When we use the noun wish, we're thinking about magic. Okay. A genie will grant you three wishes. Again we see that verb, grant. When you blow out birthday candles, make a wish. So the noun is kind of fun. But day to day we don't use the noun that often. I mean how often do we speak about magic? But the verb is common. Wish plus past simple. Just like the second conditional we're using the past simple, but we're thinking about the present, or the near future. I wish I had more money. That's a common wish, and I mean now. I think Mirella wishes she weren't here, she'd rather be at home. I wish you didn't have to leave. These are all present desires. Does the verb wish have to be in the present? No, it doesn't. I want to show you a sentence from this book I just finished reading, a Clash of Kings by George RR Martin. You might be more familiar with the TV series Game of Thrones which was based on these books. He wished he could move as sure and silent as that shadow cat and kill as quickly. Wished in the past simple and we have the past form here, could. You know could is a past of can. So even though this is in the past, we keep the past form again. Which means at that moment, this is what the character was thinking. I'll refer to this book again later in this lesson. I mean this book is just full of the subjunctive. Informally, people often say: I wish stop. He wishes stop. She wishes stop. When we say this, we mean this person doesn't think it's true, but they wish it were true. You're the professor's favorite student, I wish. I don't think this is true, but I wish it were true. Let's watch a little clip. Many of you know Prince William and Princess Catherine, they are members of the British Royal Family. This was an interview they did in 2010 before they got married. There's a story that goes around that you had a picture of him on your wall. There wasn't just one there was like, 10/20. He wishes, no. Um, no I had the Levis... So you can see here this isn't true, but he wishes it were true. There are many ways to use wish in English, and wish itself is a big topic. But in today's lesson I wanted to show you that subjunctive. Wish plus, were. Now just for fun, answer these three questions. If a genie granted you three wishes, what would they be? One. Two Three. What's something you wish you had now? What's something you wish you were? For example, I wish I were the CEO of a big company. Part five, done. Let's move on to part six, set phrases. Set phrases, God bless you. Shouldn't it be God blesses you? Nope. Not in the subjunctive. We can say God bless you after someone sneezes. God bless you, or simply, bless you. Or you might hear this at the end of a speech, or when someone's saying goodbye. God bless you. God bless you all. This set phrase is really common in day-to-day English, but a lot of these subjunctive phrases sound a bit old fashioned. So I want to bring this book back up. This book is fantasy but it's set in the past, it's set in the time of knights and castles. I want to show you a paragraph with two examples of set subjunctive phrases. The maid loved Bale so dearly she bore him a son, the song says. Though if truth be told, all the maids love Bale in them songs he wrote. Be that as it may, what's certain is that Bale left the child in payment for the rose he plucked unasked, and that the boy grew to be the next Lord Stark. Okay, if you're thinking this makes no sense. Yeah, this isn't typical Modern English. Nowadays when we say maid, we think of a woman who cleans for a job. But in old English, a maid is a young unmarried woman. So this woman loved Bale so much she bore him a son. If truth be told. In modern informal English, we would just say, to be honest. Be that as it may means, I can accept a is true, but... I want to give you another more modern example. I'm not surprised Jason was fired, he didn't get along with anybody. And get along means you have a good relationship with someone. Be that as it may, his dedication to the project cannot be denied. We should acknowledge his efforts. I can accept a is true, yet he didn't get along with anybody, but... These subjunctive set phrases may feel a a bit old fashioned but you never know when you might see one. Just like in my book. It's test time. How do you feel? I have 10 sentences and I want you to choose the correct option in each sentence, pause the video to do this. Okay, here are the answers. How did you do? Let me know in the comments below. Well, I hope this lesson helped you and I can't wait to make another video for you. Thank you so much for watching, bye!!!