What is the difference between a mood and a tense?
Why is the subjunctive a mood when it has its own verb forms? Why isn't it just another tense?
2007-09-05 05:30:22 · 3 answers · asked by dogsafire 7 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Tense really applies to time, or implies a time element. There are different "moods" for present tense for example. There is Present Indicative and Present Subjunctive.
Present tells you the tense, Subjunctive (or Indicative, etc) tells you the mood.
There is also an Imperfect Tense which has Indicative and Subjunctive Moods attached to them.
Mood just breaks down the grammar even further.
2007-09-05 05:48:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You are right that, in English, both tense and mood are ways in which information is encoded in a verb. The difference is that tense places a verb in time and mood places a verb in terms of its relationship to reality and intent. A verb can have both tense and mood in English. For example, in the sentence "I will read that book tomorrow", "will read" has indicative mood and future tense, and in the sentence "I might read that book tomorrow", "might read" has subjunctive mood and future tense.
2007-09-05 12:59:44 · answer #2 · answered by caasec 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no idea!
2007-09-05 12:38:42 · answer #3 · answered by suzy 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋