Le subjonctif

L'indicatif  -vs-  le subjonctif

French and English both have "moods" (un mode). A mood is the speaker’s attitude toward what they are saying. 

The indicative (indicatif) mood = reporting facts in an unbiased way: objectively.  The indicatif includes most verb tenses:  the présent, the futur, the futur proche, the passé composé, the imparfait, the plus-que-parfait, and the futur antérieur. 

The chart below explains what each mood is about. You’ve already seen/used the other moods (indicative, imperative, conditional). 

We’ll be focusing on the subjunctive now.

Formation of the subjunctive

The endings for the subjonctif are the same for all verbs: -e, -es, -e, ions, -iez, -ent.  (*Exceptions: avoir and être, which are irregular. We'll get to those.)

For most verbs, the subjunctive mood is formed by dropping the -ent ending from the third person plural (ils/elles) of the present indicative and adding the subjunctive endings. 

Irregular verbs with regular subjunctive forms