The subjunctive mood in French expresses actions or ideas that are subjective and/or uncertain: will/wanting, emotion, doubt, possibility, necessity, or judgment. It is not a tense but a mood, conveying how the speaker feels about the action rather than stating it as a fact.
- Used after expressions of necessity, desire, emotion, doubt, or when introducing something hypothetical.
- Main triggers include conjunctions like bien que (although), pour que (so that), and expressions like il faut que (it is necessary that).
- The présent du subjonctif typically replaces the indicative in dependent clauses after these triggers.
- Common in formal and written French; less frequent in casual speech.
Subjunctive is used for subjectivity, not for stating certain facts.
No, it's a mood that expresses subjectivity, not a tense.