Historical Subjunctive Forms
The first table below shows the present and past subjunctive endings in use at various stages of the development of English: in Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English and Modern English. Forms which differ from the corresponding indicative are bolded. -Ø denotes zero ending.
| Present tense | Past tense | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||
| First person | Second person | Third person | First & third person | Second person | |||
| Old English | -e | -e | -e | -en | -d-e | -d-e | -d-on |
| Middle English | -e | -e | -e | -e(n) | ? | ? | -d-e(n) |
| Early Modern English | -Ø | -Ø | -Ø | -Ø | -d | -d | -d |
| Modern English | -Ø | -Ø | -Ø | -Ø | |||
For comparison, the corresponding indicative endings are also given:
| Present tense | Past tense | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural | ||||
| First person | Second person | Third person | First & third person | Second person | |||
| Old English | -e | -st | -eþ | -aþ | -d-e | -d-est | -d-on |
| Middle English | -e, -Ø | -st, -est | -th, -s | -e(n) | -d(e) | -d-st | -d-e(n) |
| Early Modern English | -Ø | -est, -st | -s, -th | -Ø | -d | -d-st | -d |
| Modern English | -Ø | -Ø | -s | -Ø | -d | -d | -d |
The irregular verb be has a larger number of distinct forms, these being derived from different stems (a case of suppletion). See the Wiktionary articles on be, am, is, were, etc.
As the tables show, in Early Modern English the past subjunctive was distinguishable from the past indicative not only in the verb to be (as in Modern English), but also in the informal second-person singular (thou form) of all verbs. For example: indicative thou sattest, but subjunctive thou sat. The -(e)st ending was also absent in principle in the present subjunctive, although it was sometimes nonetheless added; for example, thou beest appears frequently as a present subjunctive in the works of Shakespeare and some of his contemporaries.
Read more about this topic: English Subjunctive
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or forms:
“It is hard to believe that England is so near as from your letters it appears; and that this identical piece of paper has lately come all the way from there hither, begrimed with the English dust which made you hesitate to use it; from England, which is only historical fairyland to me, to America, which I have put my spade into, and about which there is no doubt.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A painter told me that nobody could draw a tree without in some sort becoming a tree; or draw a child by studying the outlines of its forms merely,—but by watching for a time his motions and plays, the painter enters into his nature and can then draw him at will in every attitude.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)