Definition and Examples of Subjunctive Mood in English

In English grammar, the subjunctive is the mood of a verb expressing wishes, stipulating demands, or making statements contrary to fact.  Etymologically, the word subjunctive is from the  Latin, subjoin, bind, subordinate.  Pronunciation:  sub-JUNG-tif  mood The present subjunctive is the bare form of a verb (that is, a verb with no ending). It does not show agreement with its subject. (Example: I strongly recommend that he retire.) Two patterns of the present subjunctive are generally recognized: Formulaic SubjunctiveMandative Subjunctive The only distinctive form of the past subjunctive is the word were. It is used with singular subjects in conditional sentences and with the subordinating conjunctions as if and as though. (Example: I love him as if he were my son.) Guidelines for Using the Subjunctive The subjunctive may be used in the following circumstances in formal writing. Contrary-to-fact clauses beginning with if:If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?(Abraham Lincoln)Contrary-to-fact clauses expressing a wish:At that moment, I had the most desperate wish that she were dead.(Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich in Presumed Innocent, 1990)That clauses after verbs such as ask, demand, insist, propose, request, and suggest:I demand that he leave at once.Statements of necessity:Its necessary that she be in the room with you.Certain fixed expressions:as it were, be that as it may be, far be it from me, heaven forbid, if need be, so be it, suffice it to say Additional Examples and Observations I wouldnt bring up Paris if I were you. Its poor salesmanship.(Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca, 1942)Even the dog, an animal used to bizarre surroundings, developed a strange, off-register look, as if he were badly printed in overlapping colors.(S.J. Perelman, quoted by Roy Blount, Jr., in Alphabet Juice, 2008)Well sir, all I can say is if I were a bell, Id be ringing!(Frank Loesser, If I Were a Bell. Guys and Dolls, 1950)If music be the food of love, play on.(William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night)The public be damned.(William Henry Vanderbilt, Oct. 8, 1882)If I see one more shirttail flapping while Im captain of this ship, woe betide the sailor; woe betide the OOD; and woe betide the morale officer. I kid you not.(Humphrey Bogart as Lt. Commander Philip Francis Queeg in The Caine Mutiny, 1954)If there were a death penalty for corporations, Enron may have earned it.In the night he awoke and held her tight as though she were all of life and it was being taken away from him.(Robert Jordan in For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, 1940) The Were-Subjunctive (Irrealis Were) Teachers call this by a formidable word, subjunctive, meaning lacking in reality. What it refers to is actually the Fairy Tale Syndrome. If I were a rich man, could be such a mood. It refers to something that is not possible. If the possibility exists, the sentence would read: If I was a rich man. (Val Dumond, Grammar for Grownups. HarperCollins, 1993)Unlike the mandative subjunctive, the were-subjunctive in counterfactual if-clauses is a recessive feature of standard written English. It is not being replaced by a modal but, instead, by indicative was. Would be instead of were in counterfactual if-clauses is still largely confined to informal, spoken English. It is meeting with strong prescriptive reaction, especially in the US. One side-effect of this, so to speak, is hypercorrect use of were in non-counterfactuals. (Geoffrey Leech, Marianne Hundt, Christian Mair, and Nicholas Smith, Change in Contemporary English: A Grammatical Study. Cambridge University Press, 2012) Advice As with the misuse of whom instead of who, . . . using the subjunctive wrongly is worse than not using it all, and will make you look pompous and silly. (David Marsh and Amelia Hodsdon, Guardian Style, 3rd ed. Guardian Books, 2010)The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is put it out of its misery as soon as possible. (Somerset Maugham, A Writers Notebook, 1949) The Lighter Side of Subjunctives Detective Sergeant Lewis: All that stonework, must take months to do the pointing.Chief Inspector Morse: Youre not a bloody mason, are you?Detective Sergeant Lewis: No such luck. I might have been a Chief Inspector by now if I was.Chief Inspector Morse: Were, Lewis, if you were. Youll never get on if you cant master your subjunctives. Keep touching your forelock, we may be back in Oxford before lunch.Detective Sergeant Lewis: Shouldnt that be might?(Kevin Whately and John Thaw in Ghost in the Machine. Inspector Morse, 1987)Dancer: [reading a book titled English Grammar and Usage] Julie, you take this whole business about the subjunctive. I dont know.Julian: All right, Dancer, all right. Whats so difficult about the subjunctive?Dancer: Well, you take this, for instance: If I was you. You know? Thats all wrong. It says here, If I were you. How far can you go with this speech stuff?Julian: It sets you up, Dancer. It sets you up. Remember that. How many characters do you know hang around street corners can say, If I were you? How many, huh?Dancer: If I were you. If I were you.(Eli Wallach and Robert Keith in The Lineup, 1958)

The Downfall Of Affirmative Action - 1317 Words

Downfall of Affirmative Action Many colleges in United States are composed of an ethnically diverse student body. One of the reasons why the student body is full of diversity is because of the Affirmative Action. It is the policy that gives a special incentives to minorities and women to help promote diversity in school. Though it is a great idea to promote diversity in every college in United States, it is also a bad idea to continue this system. Many â€Å"A† students who are not minorities tend to get the same treatment as the â€Å"B† students who are minorities. Although accepted into school, these students who barely met the minimum criteria may have a tougher time at school because they may not be able to keep up with the pace of the classes since the schools have high expectations of its students. Furthermore, students who have worked hard to get good grades might be overlooked because the students who have lower grades will be accepted simply to fulfill the quo ta. Although promoting affirmative action is a great idea to seek diversity through different views from many different ethnicities, it will also take away people’s hard work, as well as producing more drop out students since they cannot keep up with what the university is expecting from them. Therefore, it is not morally justifiable or socially beneficial for the students since they may have a lower chance of succeeding at school. Affirmative action will treat the majority students the same way as the minorityShow MoreRelatedAffirmative Action : The United States956 Words   |  4 PagesAffirmative Action Affirmative Action has been around for many decades from around the 1940s. Although it has not always been called affirmative action, the official title was not introduced until the 1960s. Back then affirmative action was more known as segregation or discrimination in the workplace or there lack of. 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A Leap of Faith free essay sample

I am in my rock climbing class climbing up a thirty foot pole to do something called â€Å"The Leap of Faith.† I have to jump from the pole and grab a trapeze that hangs several feet away. I am short. I do not think I can reach it. What made me think this class was the appropriate way of pushing myself out of my comfort zone? I am standing up on the pole now, trying to distribute my weight evenly between my feet which barely fit within the pole’s diameter. I glance down and the ground seems to move away from me making my potential drop distance look exponentially larger. I am afraid of heights. I look away. Maybe if I focus on a point on the horizon, I can take my mind off the height. The Colorado wind hits my back, threatening to push me over the edge if I do not jump soon. We will write a custom essay sample on A Leap of Faith or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I have been up here for several minutes wondering when I will get the second of courage I need to jump. I am strapped into a harness for safety and my classmates hold the ropes that are supposed to save me if I miss. But what if they mess it up? From the ground, my teacher screams at me to jump, and I feel like yelling profanities back at him. I do not want to jump to my potential death. I could end up paraplegic for life. I want to climb down, but something tingles inside of me. The only thing worse than jumping from the pole and missing, is climbing down and giving up. I stare at the trapeze. What if my classmates do not catch me? What if they do? I jump. There is a moment mid-jump, when I feel as though time slows down. I am flying through the air, reaching my arms out for the trapeze. It is right there; I can grab it. I can. I miss and fall. I am going to miss my family. I am caught safely on the ropes by my classmates and I am filled with a sort of overwhelming pride. I stood face to face with a challenge and I accepted it. Now I cannot wait to try it again. My family was born and reared in Puerto Rico. I was born there and when I was eight, I moved to Colorado. My parents took a chance in moving to Colorado. They knew that the United States would provide better academic opportunities for me. They also knew that the move could be traumatic for me. Language and cultural barriers could prove to be obstacles that would make the entire move be counterproductive. I could be seriously frustrated because I did not understand or because I did not excel as well as I was used to. I could have been bullied or teased by the other kids because I had an accent and made countless mistakes when I talked. I could have had an impatient teacher who did not want to wait for me to understand what was going on. My parents took a risk and none of those things ever happened. I did not care how many times I butchered a word’s pronunciation or spelling. I kept trying anyway. Buk. Buuk. Book. I would try and try again. My classmates did not make fun of me because I spoke differently; in fact, they seemed to like me for it. My teacher took on the challenge of having a student who could not speak English and made sure I had every tool I needed to succeed, including the proper encouragement. My third grade year was not anything less than a blessing. I took a chance in seventh grade and tried tennis. I had never held a racket before. I can proudly say that there were others worse than I. By freshman year, I had made the varsity team. By my junior year, the team had voted me captain. I also took Rocky Mountain High which is a rock climbing class, and the sole purpose of my taking it was to conquer my fears, in this case, a fear of heights. I ended up learning much more. I learned team work, I learned friendship, and most important, I learned trust. Now, I am making my way up another pole getting ready for my next jump. I am fighting for a chance to go to the college of my dreams. My effort and hard work have paid off. I have realized how big an impact a little risk can have. There is one thing that has primarily made me who I am. I have learned to acknowledge that sometimes in life you have to take a Leap of Faith.

Edward Albee Essay Example For Students

Edward Albee Essay Written by Edward Albee, is a play that takes us into one evening of the lives of one couple entertaining another. This play has very dramatic characters that are very diverse and dynamic. Albee explores the dangerous fun and games played by one married couple and how they use two seemingly innocent people as pawns in their games. By the end of the night, a stunning revelation is revealed that threatens both couples emotional sanity. The play is soaked in imagery and above all symbolism that Albee uses to portray and dismantle the perfect American dream. Edward Albee was born in Washington, D. C. on March 12, 1928. Two weeks later he was adopted by Reed and Frances Albee and taken to live in the family home in Westchester, New York. Albees adoptive father owned a nationwide chain of vaudeville theaters, which meant that young Edward got much early exposure to theater personalities. Albees childhood was very comfortable. He had many servants, tutors, riding lessons, winters in Miami, summers sailing on the sound and an inexhaustible wardrobe housed in a closet that was as big as a room. His father was believed to be dominated by his wife, which is a very evident in, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? In the play, Martha is very omineering and controlling of the meek and suppressed George. Albee attended the Choate school from 1944 to 1946, when he enrolled at Trinity College, a small liberal arts institution in Hartford , Connecticut. (Burns 2523) His stay there was brief, but he gained some dramatic experience playing the role of characters in plays. Over the years, Albee has introduced thirteen plays to the American stage. He is an important figure in the American theater no only for his works, but also for his efforts to introduce new opinions. (Albee ii) In Albees own words, his plays are an examination of the American Scene, an ttack on the substitution of artificial for real values in our society, a condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen. (Flasch 283) The title of the play (Virginia Woolf) is the name of a famous British novelist who went insane and drowned herself. The title of the play is also related to the nursery rhyme, The three little pigs. When the characters of the play are drunk, they go around singing Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? much like Whos afraid of the big, bad wolf? The play consists of four characters. George is a middle-aged professor of history in a small New England who is married to the daughter of the president of the college. Martha is Georges wife, seven years his senior. She is a very domineering woman who goes between loving and hating her husband throughout the play. Nick is a new addition to the small faculty who is young and very ambitious. Honey is Nicks wife. She is very timid and childlike. There are several themes in the play that often overlap and support one another in ways that make the play very complex. The theme of truth and illusion is apparent in the play. George and Martha have to face the fact that the imaginary child that they have created and that possibly holds their marriage together must now be destroyed. In addition, the truth behind each character seems to show itself. The loud and vulgar Martha is really vulnerable and needs to be protected by the outside world. George, who seems passive at first, is the one who finally takes control of his and Marthas lives. Nick, the stud turns out to be impotent in bed with Martha. That leaves Honey, the seemingly simple minded girl has been deviously using birth control to prevent pregnancy. This is the plays most important theme: that people today have been forced to create illusions for themselves because reality has become too difficult and painful to face. .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .postImageUrl , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:hover , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:visited , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:active { border:0!important; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:active , .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029 .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u8d00661ac60af5f73656ea7bb3ba2029:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Lady Of Shalott EssayA very important part of this play is the symbolism involved. On one level, George and Martha portray the American dream gone wrong. Their imaginary child is shown to us as all of their unsuccessful hopes and dreams. On another level George and Martha are chosen to symbolize George and Martha Washington as the founding parents of our country, whose child (America) has died because of all the greed and cruelty in the world nd the greed and cruelty they have shown each other. Daniel McDonald stated that, A more honest or moral playwright does not exist. And if what Albee is doing is giving us a sentimentalized view of ourselves rather than one as harshly and starkly unsentimental as any I know, why didnt those theatre party ladies buy it up ahead of time as they do all those other technicolor postcards which pass for plays? Or is Albee not rather dedicated to smashing that rosy view, shocking us with the truth of our present-day behavior and thought, striving to purge us into an actual confrontation with eality. (McDonald 64) Another critic, Wendell Harris was not as impressed by the play as McDonald was. Harris stated, I am outraged at a theatre and an audience that accepts as a masterpiece an insufferably long play with great pretensions that lacks intellectual size, emotional insight, and dramatic electricity. Im tired of play-long metaphors-such as the illusory child of Virginia Woolf-which are neither philosophically, psychologically, nor poetically valid. Im tired of plays that are badly plotted and turgidly written being excused by such palaver as organic unity or inner form. Im tired of morbidity and sexual perversity which are there only to titillate an impotent and homosexual theatre and audience. Im tired of Albee. (Harris 252) As the critics have concluded, there are many different opposing opinions on the play, Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , Like in any great form of literature there will always be conflicting beliefs. I would rather agree with McDonald in his statement that A more honest or moral playwright does not exist. (McDonald 64) Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? highlights the different personalities, fears, and beliefs held tightly by the American public even in todays times. Albee was able to portray all of these themes into one beautifully written and well-crafted play. We are able to go from the loss of one dream, George and Marthas imaginary child that they use to throw at one another for the pure purpose of pain. To the hope of another dream, George and Martha facing the truth about their lives to one another and the new hope now that Nick and Honey will not end up in the same fun and games emotional battle that George and Martha have been in. In a way, Nick and Honey have come to represent the lost child of George and Martha, yet Nick and Honey have the chance to live on to the next day.