A website that I find amusing and informative, and which reinforces my slightly archaic way with grammar: [www.ceafinney.com]

What ?

Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines subjunctive as:

adj. 2. in grammar, designating or of that mood of a verb used to express condition, hypothesis, contingency, possibility, etc., rather than to state an actual fact: distinguished from imperative, indicative.

n. a verb in the subjunctive mood; specifically, the subjunctive mood.

Few things annoy me more than to hear, If I was you … Most who actually know that there exists a verbal mood called the subjunctive agree that it appears to be vanishing in common usage. Earlier in the twentieth century, grammarians and linguists proclaimed the subjunctive’s death and argued that this was no big loss, as its historical role in English had been weak and inconsistent; some even went so far as to say that in Modern English its usage is pretentious. The fools! The subjunctive mood is a beautiful and valuable component of the English language, and instead of dying out, it actually is enjoying a subtle revival.

The subjunctive is alive and well!

I fully expect that some grammar-nerd is going to deride the content, but I give not a fig…