A Foundation Course in Reading German, 2017a

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12/8/2017
3. Subjunctive I
In German, whenever someone else’s statements are reported or their feelings or
opinions are expressed, the subjunctive I mood is used, and that mood is signaled
by distinctive forms of the conjugated verbs. Contrast these examples:
In the English sentence, “They say that she is going to Germany,” the verbs “say”
and “is going” are in the indicative mood.
In the German equivalent, Man sagt, daß sie nach Deutschland reise, the verb
“sagt” is in the indicative mood, but the verb “reise” is in the subjunctive mood,
because it is reported speech (indirect discourse).
The meaning of the mood change is to signal that the author of the sentence does
not necessarily vouch for the truth of the statement; it allows a writer to remain
neutral regarding what he or she is reporting. Note that if the statement is given as
a direct quotation, then the indicative mood of the original statement remains: Er
sagte: “Sie reist nach Deutschland.”
The forms of the verb in the subjunctive are as follows (using the weak verb reisen
(to travel) as our example):
Present Tense
PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL
1ST ich reise wir reisen
2ND du reisest ihr reiset
3RD er/sie/es reise sie/Sie reisen
Note: This only differs from the indicative mood in the second person singular and
plural (-est and –et instead of –st and –t) and the third person singular (-e instead
of –t). Compare the chart of indicative endings in Unit 2.
All verbs in German except for the verb sein follow this conjugation in the present
tense subjunctive mood. Thus even the irregular (strong) verb wissen (to know a
fact) follows the same pattern:
PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL
ich wisse wir wissen