PAST: 
    If it rained (was raining), I was sorry.
    Past indicative:  No suggestion of doubt.

    If it had rained, I should have been sorry.
    Past perfect subjunctive, both clauses:  The speaker implies that it
    did not rain.

FUTURE:  If it rains, I shall be sorry. Present indicative:  The common, though inexact, form of a simple future supposition.

    If it rain, I shall be sorry.
   Present subjunctive:  Less common, but more exact.  The future is
   uncertain.

   If it should (were to) rain, I should be
   sorry. Subjunctive, both clauses:  The uncertainty is emphasized
   by the auxiliary form; the chances of rain seem more remote.

NOTE 1.—­When if is equivalent to “whenever”, the condition is called “general”, to distinguish it from “particular” conditions, which refer to some particular act at some particular time.  General conditions always take the indicative:  as, “If (whenever) it rains, I stay at home.”

NOTE 2.—­Sometimes there is no “if”, and then the verb or a part of the verb precedes the subject:  as, “Were it raining, I should be sorry;” “Had it been raining, I should have been sorry.”

NOTE 3.—­In such sentences as “If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” it may perhaps be questioned whether “had not died” is indicative, as in the Greek, or subjunctive, as in the Latin, idiom.

NOTE 4.—­Clauses introduced by though and unless take the same forms as clauses introduced by if.

Wishes are naturally expressed in the subjunctive.  The present subjunctive denotes a wish for the future:  as, “Thy kingdom come.”  The past subjunctive denotes a wish for the present which is unfulfilled:  as, “I wish I were a bird.”  The past perfect subjunctive denotes a wish contrary to a past fact:  as, “I wish you had been there.”

[86] In such sentences the indicative would be, according to modern usage, correct, and it is more common. [87] See paragraph 3, page 84.  The forms in “would” and “should” in conditional sentences, though they express the subjunctive idea, can hardly be called the “subjunctive mood”.  Sometimes they are called the “conditional mood.”

EXERCISE L.

Tell the time referred to in each of the following sentences, and whether the speaker regards the condition as true, untrue, or uncertain:—­