Use the subjunctive when a person wants someone else to do something, eg, I want him to go home. It can also be used to express thoughts, possibility or necessity. vouloir que to want (someone to do ...

The French subjunctive can feel intimidating, but it’s the key to sounding natural and nuanced in conversation. From expressing emotions to handling doubt and hypotheticals, it’s a core skill for ...

A recent Economist magazine column looked at the English past subjunctive. The present subjunctive gets much less attention. This appears after verbs like "insist" and "request", and can be spotted ...

Sometimes, what might have been never stops mattering. By Jean Chen Ho I’ve always had an unstable relationship to time. Maybe that’s because in Chinese, my first language, verbs aren’t conjugated.

Olly Jezek from the Czech Republic writes: Please could you explain how to use the subjunctive? E.g.: ‘It’s important that the lesson be funny.’ When should we use ‘be’ and why? Maria Goranova from ...