The subjunctive and the unreal past in English: I suggest he go, if I were you, and it's time we left

English used to have a full subjunctive mood, the way Spanish and French still do. It lost nearly all of it centuries ago, and what remains is a ghost: a handful of places where the verb refuses to behave, where I suggest he go is right and I suggest he to go is wrong, and where if I were you beats the grammar you were taught in week one.

The ghost matters for two reasons. First, the surviving forms look like mistakes, so learners "correct" them and get them wrong. Second, they cluster in exactly the registers you meet late in your learning: formal writing, contracts, polite refusals, advice. This page maps where the ghost still walks, and how far everyday English has let it slip.

A ghost, not a tense

The English subjunctive has no endings of its own. It borrows two disguises:

1. The base form of the verb where you expect an -s or an is: I suggest he go, it is vital that she be present.
2. A past tense that is not about the past: if I were you, it is time we left.

That second disguise has a name worth keeping: the unreal past. English uses the past tense to mark distance - usually distance in time, but here distance from reality. It is time we left does not mean we have gone. It means we have not, and should have. The same machinery drives wish and if only and the second conditional in conditional sentences; this page covers the rest of the family.

The were-subjunctive: if I were you

For unreal or imagined situations, be takes were for every subject, including I, he, she and it:

• If I were you, I would say nothing.
• I wish I were somewhere warm.
• He acts as if he were the owner.
• Suppose she were right. What then?

In everyday speech, was has taken over most of this ground. If he was richer, I wish I was taller and as if it was my fault are all normal, and nobody will stop the conversation to object. The slip is real and it is old; you are allowed to make it too.

Two places hold the line:

• If I were you is a fixed phrase. If I was you exists in casual speech, but the set expression is were, and advice delivered with was sounds slightly less like advice.
• Formal inversion. Drop the if and move were to the front and only were will do: Were I to lose my job, we would have to sell the house. There is no Was I to lose my job. The same applies to the fossil as it were, which means "so to speak" and never changes shape. See inversion and word order for the rest of that pattern.

The test for were versus was is reality. If he was rude to you, I will speak to him - possibly true, real past, was. If he were rude to you, you would know about it - imagined, unreal, were.

The mandative subjunctive: I suggest he go

After verbs of demanding, suggesting and requiring, the that-clause takes the base form of the verb, whatever the subject:

• I suggest that he see a doctor.
• They demanded that she return the money.
• The rules require that every member pay in advance.
• We ask that you not smoke in the rooms.

The common trigger verbs: suggest, demand, insist, recommend, propose, request, require, ask, order. The same pattern follows adjectives of importance: it is essential that, important that, vital that, necessary that.

Three details make this construction look broken to a learner:

1. No -s. I suggest that he go, not goes. The base form ignores the subject entirely.
2. Be stays be. It is vital that she be present, they insisted that the door be locked. This is the form that most often gets "corrected" into is by learners, and it should not be.
3. The negative has no do. They asked that he not be disturbed, I suggest that she not sign yet. No does not, no do not - the not sits directly in front of the bare verb.

How British English escapes it

Here everyday English has genuinely let the form slip, and which escape route you hear depends on the side of the Atlantic:

All three are correct. American English kept the old subjunctive and uses it without a second thought; British English mostly swapped it for should or the plain present. It is one of the few corners of the language where American English is the traditionalist - the same story as gotten, told in British vs American grammar. This course teaches you to recognise all three and to produce the subjunctive in formal writing, where it is safe everywhere.

One warning: suggest never takes an object plus infinitive. I suggest him to go is wrong in every variety, every register, every century. If you want that shape, change the verb: I advised him to go.

The unreal past: it is time, would rather, as if

Three more constructions borrow the past tense to talk about now.

It is time we left

It is time plus a past verb means the action should happen now and has not:

• It is time we left. (We are still here. We should not be.)
• It is time you found your own flat.
• It is high time this stopped. (High time adds impatience.)

Compare it is time to leave, with the infinitive, which is neutral: the clock says go. It is time we left points a finger; somebody has stayed too long, and the past tense is the complaint.

I would rather you didn't

When would rather keeps the same subject, it takes the bare infinitive: I would rather stay. The moment the subject changes, the verb goes to the unreal past:

• I would rather you came on Saturday.
• I would rather he did not know.
• "Do you mind if I smoke?" "I would rather you didn't."

That last exchange is one of the most British sentences ever constructed: a refusal built entirely out of grammar, with no refusing word in it. The past tense does the work that no is too blunt to do.

As if, as though

After as if and as though, a past verb marks the comparison as untrue:

• He talks as if he owned the place. (He does not.)
• She looked at me as though I were mad. (I was not.)

With a present verb, the comparison may well be true: it looks as if it is going to rain is a weather forecast, not a fantasy. The tense is the only thing telling your listener whether you believe it.

The fossils

Old subjunctives survive in fixed phrases the way insects survive in amber. You cannot change a word of them, and you do not need to analyse them - just recognise the pattern when you see a bare be or save where no rule you know allows one:

• God save the King.
• Long live the Queen.
• Be that as it may... (= even so)
• So be it. (= I accept it, reluctantly)
• Far be it from me to criticise. (said immediately before criticising)
• If need be. (= if it is necessary)
• Come what may. (= whatever happens)
• Suffice it to say... (= I will only say this much)
• Heaven forbid.

Each one is a complete museum piece: the grammar around it moved on centuries ago and left it standing. Learn them as vocabulary, not as grammar.

How far has it slipped?

A fair summary of the modern state of play:

• Fossils: fixed, permanent, no slippage possible.
• Mandative subjunctive: alive and well in American English and in formal writing everywhere; largely replaced by should or the plain present in British speech.
• Were-subjunctive: holding firm in if I were you, in inversion and in print; losing to was in conversation almost everywhere else.
• Unreal past after it is time, would rather and as if: not slipping at all, because speakers no longer feel it as subjunctive - it is simply how those constructions work.

Which is the practical rule for a learner: produce the unreal past confidently, produce if I were you as a fixed phrase, produce the mandative subjunctive in writing, and treat everything else as comprehension.

Common mistakes

Ranked by how often learners actually make them.

1. Correcting the subjunctive away. It is essential that she is informed where formal writing wants that she be informed. If a bare be looks wrong to you in a contract or a report, it is probably right.
2. I suggest him to go. Suggest takes a that-clause, never object plus infinitive. I suggest that he go or I suggest going.
3. Do-support in the subjunctive negative. They asked that he does not come should be that he not come. The mandative subjunctive never borrows do.
4. Present tense after it is time + subject. It is time we go should be it is time we went. Either use the infinitive (it is time to go) or commit to the unreal past.
5. Would rather with the wrong machinery. Same subject takes the bare infinitive (I would rather stay), different subject takes the past (I would rather you stayed). I would rather you to stay belongs to neither pattern and to no variety of English.
6. Was in formal inversion. Were I to fail cannot become Was I to fail. If you invert, you are in formal territory and were is the toll.

Practice

Choose the correct form. Answers are below.

1. If I ___ (be) you, I would apologise today.
2. The doctor insisted that he ___ (stay) in bed.
3. It is time you ___ (learn) to cook.
4. I would rather you ___ (not / mention) the price.
5. It is essential that every window ___ (be) locked at night.

Answers: 1. were (unreal present) 2. stay (mandative subjunctive - no -s) 3. learnt (unreal past after it is time) 4. did not mention (unreal past after would rather with a new subject) 5. be (mandative subjunctive after essential)

The unreal past runs right through English: wish and if only uses it for regret, conditional sentences use it for imagined results, and mixed conditionals stack the two. And for the full story of who kept the subjunctive and who dropped it, see British vs American grammar.