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The Subjunctive – Le Subjonctif
The subjunctive, called subjonctif, is the fourth and the last mood that we are going to look at in this book.
We already saw the indicative, the conditional and the imperative.
This mood includes four different tenses, but we will only focus on the subjonctif présent and the
subjonctif passé.
The subjonctif doesn’t correspond to any rule in the English language.
The subjonctif is used after que, mostly in the subordinate clause, and indicates a wish, regret,
emotion, opinion, or doubt.
AUDIO 40.1 $
Il faut que je parte maintenant. I must leave now.
Je suis heureux que tu sois là. I am happy that you are here.
Building the Subjunctive
The subjonctif présent is formed by taking the verb conjugated in the present tense with ils and removing
the -ent. That gives us the stem.
Then we add the endings for the subjonctif présent: -e, -es, -e, -ions, iez and -ent.
Être and avoir are the only verbs not following the stem rule.
Since the subjunctive is always preceded by que, we always use que in the conjugation as well.
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Regular -er verbs:
Donner To give
Ils donnent
Stem: donn
Que je donne
Que tu donnes
Qu’il donne
Qu’elle donne
Qu’on donne
Que nous donnions
Que vous donniez
Qu’ils donnent
Qu’elles donnent
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Regular -ir verbs:
Finir To finish
Ils finissent
Stem: finiss
Que je finisse
Que tu finisses
Qu’il finisse
Qu’elle finisse
Qu’on finisse
Que nous finissions
Que vous finissiez
Qu’ils finissent
Qu’elles finissent
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Regular -re verbs:
Attendre To wait
Ils attendent
Stem: attend
Que j’attende
Que tu attendes
Qu’il attende
Qu’elle attende
Qu’on attende
Que nous attendions
Que vous attendiez
Qu’ils attendent
Qu’elles attendent
The endings -e, -es, -ent have the same pronunciation.