French Verb Mood - Lawless French Grammar


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Les modes du verbe

Verb mood indicates the speaker’s attitude about the verb: whether they consider it a fact, an opinion, a command, or a possibility.

French has a total of six verb moods: four personal and two impersonal.

Personal moods have a different conjugation for each grammatical person (subject).

Conditionnel	*tu serais*	you would be	Condition or possibility
Impératif	*sois*	be	Command
Indicatif	*tu es*	you are	Indication of a fact – the most common, "normal" mood*
Subjonctif	*que tu sois*	that you be	Subjectivity, doubt, or impossibility

Grammatically speaking, impersonal means unrelated to a subject: there is only one form of the verb for all grammatical persons.

Infinitif	*être*	to be	Nominal verb form – the name of the verb as well as its noun form
Participe	*étant*	being	Adjectival verb form

Mood is about attitude, Tense is about time.

There are three Tenses: present, past, and future, so these tell you when something happens.
In comparison, Mood indicates how the speaker feels about what’s happening: is it a fact? a supposition? a command? a possibility?

Every verb form has Tense and Mood – they work together, as you can see in my French verb timeline.

* Hint: when the mood is not stated explicitly, for example passé composé, it’s the indicative mood.