All I ask is that he clean the basement after his friends leave.
If she were in charge of the fundraiser, she would raise a lot of money.
I wish that this room were warmer.
He would have gone to your birthday party, if he had known about it.
Jill's teacher recommends that she take advanced placement science next year.
The customers insist that they be moved to a new table.
Further Explanation
Subjunctive verbs are used to communicate an order, request, wish, or hypothetical. The subjunctive form of a verb usually uses the third-person form of the verb without the -s. However, this is not true for the verb to be. The subjunctive verb form for to be is either were or be. To understand this even further let us look at the sentences from the question.
Sentence 1: All I ask is that he clean the basement after his friends leave.
- In this sentence clean is the correct choice because it uses the third-person form cleans, but drops the -s.
Sentence 2: If she were in charge of the fundraiser, she would raise a lot of money.
- Here we are using to be to make the subjunctive mood. Since the subject of the verb is third-person singular we need to use were.
Sentence 3: I wish that this room were warmer.
- Again, similar to sentence 2, the subject of the verb is third-person singular and we know that this needs a subjunctive verb so were is the correct choice.
Sentence 4: He would have gone to your birthday party, if he had known about it.
- In this sentence, you must choose between had and were. It is important here to note that the hypothetical is for something that has already happened. It is not still an option. In this case, we need to use the verb had. Also, it is important here to show why were is incorrect. Even though were indicates using subjunctive, it would completely change the meaning. Saying were known switches the thing being known to he, not the birthday party.
Sentence 5: Jill's teacher recommends that she take advanced placement science next year.
- This is similar to sentence 1. The third-person form is takes. To make it subjunctive, the -s must be dropped.
Sentence 6: The customers insist that they be moved to a new table.
- This sentence uses to be to create a subjunctive mood since this sentence is an order. They haven't yet been moved to the table, so using were is incorrect because the sentence would then be in simple past tense. Be is the correct choice because it keeps the subjunctive mood with a third-person plural subject.
Learn More
- What is a subjunctive mood? : https://brainly.com/question/9891454
- How can you tell the difference between the subjunctive mood and the conditional mood? : https://brainly.com/question/10250519
Answer Details
Grade: Middle School
Subject: English
Chapter: Types of Verbs
Key Words
- subjunctive mood
- subjunctive English
- subjunctive definition
- subjunctive verbs
- subjunctive verb form
