Any sentence also carries with it the concept of mood - although of all the concepts discussed in this introduction to verbs, the concept of mood has the least impact on English. There are three moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive.
Indicative mood is the most common one because information is simply being 'indicated' or conveyed by the sentence: for example, This is our train or I am tired.
The imperative mood is when requests or orders are being given. We often use an exclamation mark to show the imperative mood.
- Don’t be late!
- Laugh and the world will laugh with you!
- Just do it! (the Nike slogan)
- Catch the 9.30 train.
Mood really only becomes an issue in English when people need to use what is called the subjunctive mood. Subjunctive mood is the sort of thing used by Beyoncé in If I were a boy, where she explains what she would do 'if ' she were a boy. It is where we propose something contrary to what is - a bit like a wish, so the word 'If ' is often used to introduce the sentence and the verb were replaces the indicative mood verb was!
The way that the verb changes with the subjunctive mood is indicated by these examples:
- If need be, I will stay to help
- I wish I were dead!
- If I were a rich man, I would...
In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino says, 'If music be the food of love, play on'.
Examples of the subjunctive where 'if' is not used at the start are:
- Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
- Were I you, I would accept the offer.