The subjunctive (il congiuntivo) is not a tense but a mood (un modo).

If you are learning Italian, you will at some point need to learn the subjunctive.

As a mood, the subjunctive (or il congiuntivo) is used to convey doubt, impossibility, and opinions. In English, we sort of walk around the subjunctive, but it’s common when we want to convey hypotheticals:

If I were taller, I could have been a basketball player.

As I’ve already grown up, I’m not likely to get taller, so my statement is an expression of something that might have happened had I grown another few inches in height. In English, the use of the subjunctive conveys formality.

In Italian, the use of the subjunctive is more common (although some linguists claim it is dying). Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll profile some important things to know about the subjunctive.

For non-native speakers, the easiest way to approach learning this mood is to know and recognize verbs and expressions that require it, such as the following verbs:

avere paura (di) to be afraid (of)

crèdere1 to believe

desiderare to desire, to want

immaginare to imagine

pensare to think

preferire to prefer

sperare to hope

temere to fear

volere to want

Here are some examples:

Voglio che tu2 non mi dica bugie!

I don’t want you to lie to me!

Literally: I don’t want that you lie to me.

Speriamo che non sia un problema per voi.

I hope it’s not a problem for you.

We also wrote a language guide for the subjunctive! It’s available on Amazon.com, Lulu.com as well as an ebook PDF here.