Re: Subjunctive

On Monday 27 January 2003 12:40 am, John C. wrote:
>        I am new here and would like to thank the people who helped direct
> me to registration at Listserv. But...
>        I have a problem here. I am new to language design (I'm 15 and
> started last fall) and I need some help. I'd really appreciate it. I'm
> designing a language and so far I
> have created a Conditional mood (I could run, You may go), an Indicative
> mood (I come, You are seeing), and an Imerative mood (Come here), but I am
> having trouble designing a Subjunctive mood (or atleast something close to
> it... something that expresses hypothesis or a "what if" scenario). To be
> honest, I am not sure I understand this mood completely. English barely has
> one and its hard to think outside the "box" on this one for me... damn
> those English mental constraints! I am trying to express a "what if" mood,
> like (I would go, The car could have broken down) but am having trouble as
> to setting it up. Is it a division of the conditional? What auxilary verbs
> can you use with it... I know you can use "can" and "will" i.e. could and
> would, but how extensive does it go?Does anyone have any suggestions? Can
> you use it with a past, present, AND future tense (my language has a future
> tense unlike English)? Does anyone have a website completely describing
> their language's Subjunctive or anything close to it? I would like to model
> mine off of that...I'd really appreciate it.
>

Subjunctive's kind of fuzzy.  'may, or might' is another verb you could use.
I'm not 100% sure of it myself...