7.10 The subjunctive: general

Adjectives in -bar express a passive possibility:

Diese Muscheln sind nicht essbar.

Diese Muscheln können nicht gegessen werden. These mussels are not edible. These mussels cannot be eaten. Das Argument ist nicht widerlegbar. Das Argument kann nicht widerlegt werden. This argument is irrefutable. This argument cannot be refuted.

In addition to tense (present tense, past tense, etc.) and voice (active or passive), verb forms can vary in terms of their MOOD. This indicates whether the speaker is expressing a fact, command, wish, etc.

In German, as in English, most verbs are in the INDICATIVEMOOD, and this is used for statements that are presented as fact (the tenses of the indicative were explained in 7.1–7.3).

The IMPERATIVE is used in both English and German to give commands, e.g. Warte! (familiar) or Warten Sie! (polite) (‘Wait!’) (the forms of the imperative are given in 6.3).

The SUBJUNCTIVEMOOD can signal that the speaker regards the statement as unreal, or as merely possible, rather than as fact, e.g. ‘If I knew he were at home, I would drop round’. The subjunctive is used more widely in German than in English. Most forms are more widespread in written than in spoken language. By using the subjunctive mood, German speakers can characterize what they are saying as unreal, possible or not necessarily true. The subjunctive is primarily used in CONDITIONAL sentences (7.11) and in REPORTEDSPEECH (7.12).

The forms of the subjunctive in German fall into two groups, which are usually called SUBJUNCTIVEI and SUBJUNCTIVEII, and these two groups have rather different uses:

subjunctiveI present subjunctive es gebe perfect subjunctive es habe gegeben future subjunctive es werde geben subjunctiveII past subjunctive es gäbe pluperfect subjunctive es hätte gegeben conditional es würde geben

As the tables in section 6.9 show, for most verbs (except sein) the only ending for subjunctiveI which is clearly different from that for the indicative is the one for er/sie/es, and, in practice, this is the only form which is at all commonly used.

The past subjunctive and conditional forms are interchangeable in meaning in most contexts, e.g. ich gäbe and ich würde geben can both mean ‘I would give’. The one-word pastsubjunctive forms are used mainly for the most common verbs, especially wäre, hätte and the modal auxiliaries.