The French Subjunctive - Part 2

In this lesson, we'll be tackling the subjunctive, a verbal mood that expresses a wide range of situations, such as a wish, an obligation, a possibility, a doubt, or an emotion. Whereas the indicative mood simply describes something that happens, the subjunctive mood describes something that may happen, something you want to happen, something you're afraid will happen, and other hypothetical situations. It's the difference between the phrases "you are here" and "I wish you were here." 

The general rule for forming the subjunctive in French is to take the third-person plural (ils/elles) present indicative form of the verb, remove the -ent, and add the subjunctive endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, and -ent. Take a look at this handy chart for a concise summary of the conjugation of regular subjunctive verbs. We'll go over irregular subjunctive conjugations in another lesson. 

Let's take the verbs dire (to say) and réfléchir (to think about) as examples. To conjugate them in the first-person singular subjunctive, we would go to the third-person present plural indicative (disent and réfléchissent), drop the -ent, and add the first-person singular subjunctive ending -e. The results are dise and réfléchisse: 

Qu’est-ce que tu veux que je te dise? 
What do you want me to tell you? 

Avec tout ce choix, il faut que je réfléchisse.

With all these choices, I have to think about it.

Caption 10, Il était une fois: L’Espace - 3. La planète verte

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Besides the conjugation, the most important aspect of the French subjunctive is that it almost always follows the word que (that), as in the expressions tu veux que and il faut que above. Vouloir que (to want) and il faut que (it is necessary that) are among the large number of French expressions that require the subjunctive. You can find a detailed list of these expressions here.
   
The subjunctive is used to express some of the most basic emotions, such as happiness and sadness: 

On est vraiment très heureux que nos huit jeunes puissent partir.

We are truly very happy that our eight young people are able to go.

Caption 8, Télé Lyon Métropole - Sport dans la ville & Afrique du Sud

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Je suis triste que mon ami ne vienne pas au concert avec nous. 
I'm sad that my friend isn't coming to the concert with us. 

It's also used in a number of conjunctive phrases such as pourvu que (as long as), bien que (even though), and avant que (before):

Tu pourras leur parler de ce que tu voudras,

You'll be able to talk to them about whatever you like,

pourvu que tu parles au moins deux heures.

as long as you speak for at least two hours.

Captions 3-4, Il était une fois: L’Espace - 6. La révolte des robots

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J'aime le karaoké bien que je ne chante pas très bien. 
I love karaoke even though I don't sing very well. 

...avant que leurs enseignements ne soient exploités par l'industrie.

...before their lessons are exploited by industry.

Caption 22, Le Journal - 2000 mètres sous les mers

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As the above example demonstrates, some subjunctive constructions (like avant que) require a ne without a pas (known as a ne explétif) before the verb. See our previous lesson for an in-depth look at this special use of ne.
  
Some phrases, such as penser que (to think that), only take the subjunctive in the negative: 

Je ne pense pas que ça serve à grand-chose, ce que tu comptes faire.

I don't think it's going to help much, what you're planning to do.

If we make that sentence affirmative, we'll need to change servir from the subjunctive to the indicative:

Je pense que ça sert à beaucoup de choses, ce que tu comptes faire.
I think it's going to help a lot, what you're planning to do.  

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To sum up, the subjunctive is used after a vast number of expressions that convey a wide variety of subjective and hypothetical states. This multitude of usages makes learning the subjunctive no easy feat, but the fact that the subjunctive almost always follows the word que makes it a little less daunting. So if there's one thing you should take away from this lesson, it's that whenever you see a verb after the word que, there's a good chance it should be in the subjunctive!