[Footnote 3: The subjunctive as a form of the verb is fading out of the language. The only distinctive forms remaining (except for the verb be) are the second and the third person singular of the present, and even these ate giving way to the indicative. Such forms as If he have loved, etc. are exceptional. It is true that other forms, as, If he had known, Had he been, Should he fall, may be used in a true subjunctive sense, to assert what is a mere conception of the mind, i. e., what is merely thought of, without regard to its being or becoming a fact; but in these cases it is not the form of the verb but the connective or something in the construction of the sentence that determines the manner of assertion. In parsing, the verbs in such constructions may be treated as indicative or potential, with a subjunctive meaning.
The offices of the different mode and tense forms are constantly interchanging; a classification based strictly on meaning would be very difficult, and would confuse the learner.]
IMPERATIVE MODE.[4]
PRESENT TENSE.
Singular. Plural.
2. /Pres./ (you or thou); 2. /Pres./ (you or ye).
[Footnote 4: From such forms as Let us sing, Let them talk, some grammarians make a first and a third person imperative. But us is not the subject of the verb-phrase let-sing, and let is not of the first person. Us is the object complement of let, and the infinitive sing is the objective complement, having us for its assumed subject.
Some would find a first and a third person imperative in such sentences as "Now tread we a measure"; "Perish the thought." But these verbs express strong wish or desire and by some grammarians are called "optative subjunctives." "Perish the thought" = "May the thought perish," or "I desire that the thought may perish," or "Let the thought perish.">[