I have been reading up on subjunctive mood, but I am having trouble seeing why this sentence is incorrect:
“If my girlfriend go to bed, I will play with you.”
Here it is conditional, so could someone please explain to me, why the verb should be ‘goes’ and not ‘go’? Thank you.
Answer
From Wikipedia: The English subjunctives occurs ‘in if clauses expressing a condition that does not or did not hold (“If she were here right now, …”; “If she had been here yesterday, …”)’.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjunctive_mood
In your example it is very possible that the girlfriend will go to bed. It is sometimes called the first conditional and is not in the subjunctive mood: if my girlfriend goes to bed, I will play with you.
The so-called 2nd and 3rd conditionals of your example would be formulated with a subjunctive:
2nd conditional: If my girlfriend went to bed, I would play with you.
3rd conditional: If my girlfriend had gone to bed, I would have played with you.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Cazo , Answer Author : S Conroy
