Conditional dilemma

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Hi,I was trying to brush up on the conditional and subjunctive and came upon a question or two. I hope you could help.In conditionals, there seem to be names like 'present unreal conditional', 'past unreal conditional' and 'future unreal conditional', and as far as I know, the subjunctive mood is created when contrary-to-fact, hypothetical, or dubious situation is represented and some conditionals are the subjunctive in mood.eg,1.If I worked more diligently, I would buy more bacon.2. If I had money, I would buy a Lexus.3. If I had been talking with him at the meeting, I would have recognized that he is my cousin.4. If I had won the match, I would have become famous.Would you say all the above sentences, which I believe are type 2 or 3 unreal conditionals, are in the subjective mood?  So, some condtionals are the subjuntive, aren't they?       Side question: A lot of  dictionaries seem to indicate that the word 'subjunctive' is usually precede with the article 'the', but lately I seem to see cases where it is made plural or it with 'a' in front of it (like 'a subjunctive'). Are they correct? are

Philip · Accepted Answer

Believer
1.If I worked more diligently, I would buy more bacon.

2. If I had money, I would buy a Lexus.

3. If I had been talking with him at the meeting, I would have recognized that he is my cousin.

4. If I had won the match, I would have become famous.

Would you say all the above sentences, which I believe are type 2 or 3 unreal conditionals, are in the subjective mood?

So, some condtionals are the subjuntive, aren't they?

Side question: A lot of dictionaries seem to indicate that the word 'subjunctive' is usually precede with the article 'the', but lately I seem to see cases where it is made plural or it with 'a' in front of it (like 'a subjunctive'). Are they correct? are

As I indicated to you once before, the subjunctive mood is often difficult to identify when you come across it because it is appears the same as some other tense. This is true with all four sentences above. The most common "different form" cases are the first-singlular and the third-singular. And this is true only of some verbs. (If I were you, if here were here).

I do not understand your side question. Details?

Marius Hancu · Answer

All 4 are in the subjunctive mood.

Cool Breeze · Answer

BelieverSide question: A lot of dictionaries seem to indicate that the word 'subjunctive' is usually precede with the article 'the', but lately I seem to see cases where it is made plural or it with 'a' in front of it (like 'a subjunctive'). Are they correct? are

Hi Believer

Grammatical terms are often used with the:

This sentence is in the passive (voice).
The past tense is different from the present tense.

However, even though they often take the definite article, nothing prevents you from putting them in the

plural or usinga with them when it seems appropriate:

There isn't a single subjunctive in the entire paragraph.

Cheers
CB

Believer · Answer

Thank you, Philip.

I gather that a person can figure out whether a sentence is in the sujuctive mood by reflecting on the said mood of each sentence and this sort of question: does each sentence shows any of the four (possibly more??) mood characteristics? So I think we can say that one can pretty much figure out whether a particular sentence is constructed with the subjunctive mood by reflecting on the said mood. Does it sound good? Figuring out might not be all that difficult (at least for some).

Conditional dilemma

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