Buongiorno, Io Sono Il Congiuntivo
Friday January 18, 2008
An informative and entertaining explanation of the subjunctive (il congiuntivo), in which the verb tense is personified as a person writing an e-mail.
The subjunctive tense is rapidly becoming extinct. In Italian, though, the subjunctive tense is alive and flourishing, both in speaking and writing.
The subjunctive tense is rapidly becoming extinct. In Italian, though, the subjunctive tense is alive and flourishing, both in speaking and writing.
Comments
I believe the subjunctive is a “mood,” not a tense, just as the “indicative” and the “imperative” are moods. Moods have tenses within them, like the present, past, future, etc.
Strictly speaking, that’s correct. Grammatical mood per se is not the same thing as grammatical tense. But these concepts have been conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more than one of these concepts at the same time.
Thanks for visiting the About.com Guide to Italian Language!
Un salutone,
-Michael
Michael P. San Filippo
About.com Guide to Italian Language
http://italian.about.com
italian.guide@about.com
About.com is part of The New York Times Company
Likewise, I immediately noticed that you wrote “the subjunctive tense”, which jumped out at me as erroneous. The subjunctive is a mood, grammatically speaking, not a tense.
I have heard that the subjunctive is rapidly becoming extinct elsewhere but I have raised this with a few Italians who diagree. To what extent is this true and what sort of impression would I give if I did not use the subjunctive when I try to speak Italin in Italy?
If you post your question on the About.com Italian Language Bulletin Board at http://italian.about.com/mpboards.htm you’re likely to gain input from native Italian speakers about current usage.
Un salutone,
-Michael