If we substitute this scheme of conjugation for the simpler one given in the preceding pages, we still fail to get a classification in which every form corresponds in use to its name. The following examples will illustrate:—
He returns to-morrow. (Present = Future.)
When I have performed this, I will come to you. (Present Perfect = Future
Perfect.)
If any member absents himself, he shall pay a fine. (Indicative =
Subjunctive.)
You shall go. (Indicative = Imperative.)
After memorizing all the terms and forms belonging to the conjugation here outlined, the student will find that he has gained little to aid him in the use of language. For instance, in this synopsis of the Subjunctive are found nineteen forms. As there are three persons in the singular and three in the plural, we have one hundred and fourteen subjunctive forms! How confusing all this must be to the student, who, in his use of the subjunctive, needs to distinguish only such as these: If he be, If he were, If he teach! Beyond these, the subjunctive manner of assertion is discovered from the structure of the sentence or the relation of clauses, not from the conjugation of the verb.
Those English authors and their American copyists who eliminate the Potential Mode from their scheme of conjugation tell us that the so-called potential auxiliaries are either independent verbs in the indicative or are subjunctive auxiliaries. With the meager instruction given by any one or by all of these authors, the student will find it exceedingly difficult to determine when these auxiliaries are true subjunctives. To illustrate:—
1. May you be happy. 2. I learn that I may be able to teach. 3. He might have done it if he had liked. 4. If he should try, he would succeed. 5. I would not tell you if I could. 6. I could not do this if I were to try.
The forms italicized above are said to be subjunctive auxiliaries; those below are said to be independent verbs in the indicative.
7. He may be there. 8. He might ask you to go. 9. You should not have done that. 10. He would not come when called. 11. I could do this at one time.