The German Subjunctive

In German the subjunctive is called the Konjunktiv and there are two of them. Konjunktiv I—

which is formed differently from its younger brother Konjunktiv II—is used chiefly for reporting
indirect speech and old fashioned commands. Historians and journalists will be pleased to know
there’s a mood in which they can really show off.
Konjunktiv II is where the magic happens. This mood, much as in English, gives you the ability
to create hypothetical situations, express doubt over an idea and wish yourself into anything
you want to be.
It’s by far the more commonly used of the two, and once you’ve cracked it, you’ll really be
able to deepen your conversational skills. With the subjunctive you can express your desires that
—up until now—the indicative “I want” has made rude or boring. This is where we’ll start.
Subjunctive II: “Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda”

Let’s take another look at what my teacher told me:

If I could master the subjunctive, I wouldn’t be far off from mastering being human.
This is straight up Konjunktiv II. In fact, almost 100% of the times you see the words “should,”
“would” or “could,” you’ll be knee deep in the subjunctive. In the example above, we are
expressing the hypothetical notion of mastering the Subjunctive II and therefore the hypothetical
notion of mastering being human. A leap of faith perhaps, but it serves our purpose.
The Subjunctive II also helps us to soften requests. In fact one of the first things you’ll have
learned in German will have been how to order something in a restaurant. “I want” doesn’t get
you there. But Ich möchte (I would like) or  Ich hätte gerne (I would like to have), does very
nicely. These are both examples of Konjunktiv II. They are expressions of desire, much like
wishing, which is also used in the subjunctive mood.

Essentially, the subjunctive mood is used when there is an element of doubt or when something
has not yet happened contained within the thought. Let’s have a look at some examples and work
out how to form the Subjunctive II.

Rules and Application

Forming the Subjunctive II is much easier than you would think, and is done in two ways. One is
the adaptation of the imperfect, and the other is with an auxiliary verb, werden (to become).
The most commonly used verbs used without the auxiliary are haben, sein and the modal verbs.
In these cases, the verbs use the stem of their imperfect tense conjugation, but gain an umlaut
and an “-e” if needed. For example:
 haben – habe – hatte – hätte
 sein  – bin – war – wäre
 mögen – mag – mochte – möchte
 dürfen – darf – durfte – dürfte
 können – kann – konnte – könnte
 müssen – muss – musste – müsste
 wollen – will – wollte – wollte      (Q. Ummm, where’s the umlaut?   A. Some verbs
don’t take one)
 sollen – soll – sollte – sollte            (Q. Again, where’s that umlaut?     A. Sorry.)

So you see, it’s pretty straight forward. Of course all verbs have a subjunctive form. And
whether they’re irregular or regular, weak or strong, they are all formed from the stem of their
imperfect conjugation.

 gehen  – gehe – ging – ginge

 kaufen – kaufe – kaufte – kaufte
 geben – gebe – gab – gäbe
 essen – esse – aß – äße
You get the picture. But there’s a much, much easier way of getting a handle on Konjunktiv
II and it’s with the verb werden.
While those first eight verbs we conjugated above don’t use it, every other verb you can think of
can be used in the subjunctive with werden; which I guess right now is looking like a pretty
special verb. If you know the subjunctive form of werden, then you know the subjunctive form
of every other verb (except for those top eight, don’t forget them).

Here it is:

ich würde
du  würdest
er/sie/es  würde
wir  würden
ihr  würdet
Sie/sie würden
All you have to do now is add the infinitive and you’ve got yourself a verb in Konjunktiv II.
Examples
Wenn ich viel Geld hätte, würde ich eine Weltreise machen.
(If I had a lot of money, I would travel the world.)
Du würdest mich hier nicht alleine lassen, oder?
(You wouldn’t leave me alone here, would you?)
Nein, natürlich nicht, wir würden zusammen  fliegen!
(No, not at all, we could fly together!)

Here we see the subjunctive mood being used firstly to express a desire dependent on a particular
condition (having lots of money) as well as being used in a question which expresses a doubt or a
negative (whether or not person B would be left by themselves). And finally the resolution, still
in the subjunctive because the idea is still dependent on person A having enough money, which
she doesn’t.

There is a great game to really nail this form of the subjunctive. In a group beginning with the
idea “Wenn ich viel Geld hätte…,” one person goes on to create a scenario. So using the example
above:
Wenn ich viel Geld hätte, würde ich eine Weltreise machen.

The next person uses this scenario to continue the story.

Wenn ich eine Weltreise machen würde, müsste ich meinen Hund zu Hause lassen.

(If I traveled the world, I would have to leave my dog at home.)

And so on…

Wenn ich meinen Hund zu Hause lassen müsste, wäre ich ganz traurig.

(If I had to leave my dog at home, I would be very sad.)
Past Tense

The Subjunctive II only works in two tenses. The “non-past,” as displayed above, and the
indeterminate past. The reason these two are indeterminate is because of the unreal nature of the
subjunctive. “If I had a lot of money I would travel the world” could relate to any time that has
not yet occurred.

Similarly, the statement, “Had I worn warmer clothes, I wouldn’t have gotten sick” refers to a
time in the past which is unreal. Using the past in Konjunktiv II is a tad trickier, but nothing to
cause any kind of breakdown.
Using sein  and  haben  in their subjunctive form as the auxiliaries, we simply add the past
participle of the verb we want to be expressed in the subjunctive and voila:
Wenn ich mich wärmer angezogen hätte, wäre ich nicht krank geworden.
(Had I worn warmer clothes, I wouldn’t have gotten sick.)

And that’s it.

Subjunctive I: “That’s What She Said”

Subjunctive I is nowhere near as frequently used as Subjunctive II. Chiefly this mood is used in
reported or indirect speech as a way of maintaining distance from the source. You’ll also find it
cropping up in older forms of instructional manuals, cookbooks and the like, as well as general
sayings, such as “Es Lebe der König” (long live the king) and “Gott sei Dank” (thank God).
Rules and Application
Forming Konjunktiv I is fairly straightforward. Whereas Konjunktiv II is formed from the stem of
its imperfect conjugation, here we use the present tense stem and then add the same endings as
with earlier.
Luckily for us, this applies to every verb save one, sein, which was always going to be doing
something different, let’s face it.
Konjunktiv I forms of haben, leben, and gehen:
Ich mache, habe, lebe, gehe
du machest, habest, lebest, gehest,
er/sie/es mache, habe, lebe, gehe,
wir machen, haben, leben, gehen,
ihr machet, habet, lebet, gehet,
Sie/sie machen, haben, leben, gehen.
Konjunktiv I form of sein:
Ich sei
du  seist
er/sie/es  sei
wir  seien
ihr  seiet
Sie/sie seien
While this is a necessary skill to acquire if you’re looking to enhance your written German, I
can’t stress enough how infrequently this mood is used outside of news reporting. Practice by
identifying it in online newspaper reports and in no time you’ll be able to differentiate by what a
person did and what a person is said to have done–good, huh?
Tenses
Unlike Konjunktiv II, which has only two, Konjunktiv I has four tenses: present, past, future and
future perfect. In these latter three, the rule is simple: The auxiliary verb is conjugated
in Konjunktiv I.
Present: Er sagte, er habe  kein Interesse. (He said he isn’t interested.)
Past: Er sagte, er sei nicht gegangen. (He said he didn’t go.)
Future: Er sagte, er werde  es morgen machen. (He said, he will do it tomorrow.)
Future Perfect: Er sagte, er werde sich vor Montag entschuldigt haben. (He said he will have
apologized before Monday.)

So there we are. The key to talking about being human, to talking about all your dreams and
wishes, as well as being able to talk about someone else’s dreams and wishes, with the use of the
German subjunctive mood. It may be a lot to take in, but the rewards of mastering it are huge.
Good luck!