Verb Moods

            Good day everyone! Let us have the verb moods. Most Indo-European languages, in addition to verb tenses which demonstrate time, they also have verb moods which indicate a state of being or reality.

Mood is the form of the verb that shows the mode or manner in which a thought is expressed. English verbs have four moods: 

1.Indicative Mood expresses an assertion, denial, or question.

e.g. Little Rock is the capital of Arkansas.
       Have you finished your homework?
       Be careful!

2.Imperative Mood expresses command, prohibition, entreaty, or advice:

e.g. Don’t smoke in this building.

3.Subjunctive  Mood expresses doubt or something contrary to fact.

Modern English speakers use indicative mood most of the time, resorting to a kind of “mixed subjunctive” that makes use of helping verbs. The verb may can be used to express a wish.

e.g. If I should see him, I will tell him.

      May you have many more birthdays.

      If I were you, I wouldn’t keep driving on those tires.

4.Infinitive  Mood expresses an action or state without reference to any subject. It can be the source of sentence fragments when the writer mistakenly thinks the infinitive form is a fully-functioning verb.

When we speak of the English infinitive, we usually mean the basic form of the verb with “to” in front of it: to go, to sing, to walk, to speak.

Verbs said to be in the infinitive mood can include participle forms ending in -ed and -ing. 

Verbs in the infinitive mood are not being used as verbs, but as other parts of speech.

Here, to err and to forgive are used as nouns.

e.g.  To err is human; to forgive, divine. 

Here, to be admired is an adjective, the equivalent of admirable. It describes the noun man.

e.g. He is a man to be admired. 

Here, to see you is used as an adverb to tell why he came.

e.g. He came to see you.