The Forgotten Subjunctive

On the evening after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, President Lincoln was asked to say a few words from the portico of the White House to a waiting crowd below. A nearby band offered to play a tune for him, and Lincoln requested “Dixie”, a favorite song of the South. He said it was one of the best tunes he had ever heard.

“Dixie” was actually composed by a Northern, and pro-Union, man named Dan Emmett. An Ohio native, Emmett appeared in minstrel shows, popular in antebellum America, often in New York. The chorus begins, “I wish I was in Dixie..”

I mention the song because it is grammatically incorrect. It should be: “I wish I were in Dixie....” 

Songwriters, in capturing the colloquial vernacular, often use incorrect grammar in their melodies – and they get away with it all the time. It’s about the feeling, the essence of the time and place they are trying to create.

However, whenever feeling or essence of a possible outcome is used correctly in language, the subjunctive tense is needed. Like the above chorus, most of our western languages use, and misuse, it.

Which of these sentences is correct?

“The doctor recommends that she goes to the hospital.”

“The doctor recommends that she go to the hospital.”

The second sentence is the correct one.

Whenever there is opinion, emotion, or a hypothetical – any sentence that begins with a possibly different outcome, the subjunctive tense is going to be utilized in a part of the phrase: “If I were you, I wouldn't travel that route to Gettysburg!”

The subjunctive is also used in commands, such as “Be on time.” It’s a shortened way of saying, “I insist that you be on time.” 

Many of our adages employ the subjunctive:

“So be it.”

“Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.”

“Come what may.”

This tense has been around a long time, as Shakespeare proved in a quote from Hamlet: “Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak.” 

The subjunctive is confusing in English because the plural conjugations of the subjunctive tense (we, they, and sometimes you as well) are the same as normal usage: “The doctor recommends that we go to the hospital.”

It is impossible to name all the potential uses, as practically every verb in our language has a subjunctive tense.

It is one of the most prolifically quoted grammatical errors.

If it’s just too hard to think about it, there are ways to get around the subjunctive:

“The doctor recommends going to the hospital….”

“I know I'm not you, and you can go the way you like, but I know a better route to Gettysburg!”

“There’s no place like home, and I don’t care how humble it is!”

“Murder has no tongue, but we certainly hear it talking way too often!” (My apologies to the Bard.)

“Who wishes to go to Dixie? I do!” (It doesn’t quite have the same ring, does it?)

I urgently request that the subjunctive be used when grammatically necessary! Or: Don't forget to employ the subjunctive! 

Pass it on!