When I was in school, I remember learning about the different verb forms and tenses in my foreign language classes and marveling at the large variety of them, thinking “thank goodness there aren’t this many in English.” This was before I went deeper into my studies of English and realized how wrong I was.
As a result of this experience, my students and I, thanks to the Common Core Georgia Performance Standards, explored the subjunctive mood.
Subjunctive mood
In English, the subjunctive mood is used to explore conditional or imaginary situations. It can be tricky to use, which partially explains why many speakers and writers forego it. But it’s quite useful (and aesthetically pleasing, at least to us), and careful users of English should do their part to preserve it.
Source: Grammarist
The subjunctive is used in English to express a command, desire, hypothesis, purpose, doubt, or supposition.
Examples:
- I wish he were here.
- If I were in Boston right now, I would be preparing for a blizzard.
The students took notes on this concept and we worked through the example sentences as well. Each student received a handout with more notes, examples, and exercises in order to practice what they had learned. If the students did not finish their handout, they were to complete it for homework tonight.
Below are resources for further practice and explanations of the subjunctive mood:
- Grammarist
- Grammar Monster
- Video Explanation (this was used in class along with this video)
Homework:
- Read for 30 minutes.
- Study Lesson 10 words from “Vocabulary from Classical Roots” Book C
- Finish the handout distributed in class.
- Input your “If I Were President” speech onto KidBlog.
- Respond to at least 2 other classmate’s “Dear Dr. King” post. Try to respond where no previous responses were made.
PowerPoint:
