📷 Subjunctive

The subjunctive is a very important verb form in Pashto, but it's often ignored by English-speaking learners because we don't really have anything like it in English. So, we need to understand what it is, and then train our brains to reach for it and use it in the right situations!

Introducing the Subjunctive

The subjunctive is like the perfective cousin of the present form.

We said we use the present form to talk about things that are happening, or generally happen in reality. Naturally this was imperfective because the event is either ongoing or reccuring.

But the subjunctive is perfective because instead of talking about something happening in reality, we're talking about the idea of something happening or not. We're looking about the action or event from the outside as a whole.

As we read on wikipedia:

“Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgement, opinion, obligation, or action that have not yet occurred.”

How to make it

The subjunctive is made the same way as its cousin the present, except this time we use the perfective stem.

لیکل - leekúl

to write

split head

Imperfective Stem

لیکـ

leek–

Perfective Stem

ولیکـ

óoleek–

Imperfective Root

لیکل

leekúl

LongShort

Perfective Root

ولیکل

óoleekul

LongShort

Neg.Pos.

Pers.	Singular	Plural
1st	زهولیکم zuóoleekum I should write • That I will write	موږولیکو mooGóoleekoo We should write • That We will write
2nd	تهولیکې tuóoleeke You should write • That you will write	تاسېولیکئ táaseóoleekey You (pl.) should write • That you (pl.) will write
3rd	هغهولیکي hagháóoleekee he/she/it should write • That he/she/it will write	هغویولیکي haghwéeóoleekee They should write • That They will write

Examples

Should or shouldn't

Note: the subjunctive can be used almost like an imperative in situations like this.

Possibility

Purpose

Note: Because the subjunctive is made from the perfect stem, the front part of it (usually و - óo) can be split off and you can put little particles like نه - nú, هم - hum, and mini-pronouns in between it and the rest of the verb. See the verb trees 🌳 and click on the split button to see where this split happens.

When you use the negative نه - nú particle, it always has to go in this split. (And نه - nú always takes over the emphasis/accent on the word.)

With Subordinate Clauses

As you can see, the subjunctive is often used in subordinate clauses that come after phrases like:

• چې ... - che ... (so that/if...)
• کېدی شي چې... - keday shee che... (it could be that...)
• هسې نه چې... - hase na che... (lest...)
• امید لرم چې... - Umeed larum che... (I hope that...)
• زه غواړم چې... - zu ghwaaRum che... (I want to...)
• ته باید ... - tu baayad ... (You have to ...)
• په کار دی چې ... - pu kaar day che ... (It's necessary that ...)

...etc.