Subjunctive: it is the mood to express possibility, wish or fear, subjective opinion or doubt, verisimilitude or unreality; it is generally used with verbs expressing dubiousness, personal judgement and affective participation.
sembra che se ne vada
(it seems that he go away)
preferisco che se ne vada
(I prefer that he go away)
The subjunctive mood has four tenses: presente, imperfetto, passato, trapassato, and it is used especially by subordinate clauses.
(I tryed to draft a scheme...but it is impossible
)A synopsis: http://www.geocities.com/f_pollett/i-9-1.htm
M. Henri Day dixit:
A concise synthesis: subjunctive is still alive! Indeed: in casual speech you can find many: penso che è meglio... (I think it's better...) instead of penso che sia meglio; but by è importante che gli insegnanti ... the common sense would prompt Everyman to use subjunctive, no doubt of it. (maybe too optimistitic, I know)In Italian, formal or written speech would require, I believe, the congiuntivo presente ([... è importante che] insegnanti siano ...], but again, I suspect that a majority of the population would use the indicativo presente ([... è importante che] insegnanti sono ...) in casual speech
Thank you all for your welcome!
