>>7Essentially the subjunctive is a verb form used in hypothetical situations as opposed to regular situations, where the common indicative is employed instead. Many languages have a subjunctive mood. English often confuses the subjunctive with the indicative, largely because their morphologies are so identical.
The subjunctive form is essentially the bare infinitive without the 'to.' You might or might not be saying to yourself, "what's the big deal? English conjugates nearly every verb with the bare infinitive." And that's true. For instance, we have a verb like "to run", and we conjugate it as "I run", "we run", "you run","they run". However, when we use the third person forms "he runs" and "the boy runs", we add an -s. The subjunctive doesn't do this. The subjunctive becomes "he run." Therefore, the subjunctive is pretty much only noticeable in the third person singular.
It is also noticeable in the verb "to be", in which case it is simply "be" in all persons. So: "I be", "you be", "he be", etc. This verb is also unique because it has a past subjunctive, "I were", "you were", "he were".
The subjunctive is rarely used by itself. It is usually used after a verb of recommendation or preference. For instance: "I recommend he eat an apple", "I would prefer she bring somebody else".
It's also used after conjunctions like "whether" and "lest", as seen in
>>1It plays an important part in "if" constructions, where the subjunctive is preferred. For instance, "if I were a girl", "if you were to sing", etc. The subjunctive is particularly great because it allows inversion. Consider "were I to dance" instead of "if I were to dance."