A mood is a property of verbs that indicates the attitude of the speaker about the factuality or likelihood of what is expressed. The term mood is also applied to the sets of verb forms that convey this attitude. English has three moods. The indicative mood, which is by far the most common, is used to make statements. The sentences Wilson enjoys music and The dog ran across the street are in the indicative mood. The imperative mood is used to give direct commands, such as Get out of here! or Stop shouting! The subjunctive mood is used to indicate doubt or unlikelihood, as were in If she were here, we wouldn’t be in this fix. The subjunctive has very limited use in English, having been largely supplanted by modal auxiliaries like may and might. Nonetheless, the subjunctive still has its uses and its usage problems.
