by Lea Hauke
Updated on December 12, 2023
How to master the German subjunctive mood
Understanding the German subjunctive mood is essential for all German learners. Knowing how and when to use the Subjunctive 1 (Konjunktiv 1) and Subjunctive 2 (Konjunktiv 2) helps you to express hopes and doubts. Just as importantly, you can use it to order food politely at your favorite restaurant.
While the principles are similar to how the subjunctive is used in English, it wouldn’t be German grammar if it wasn’t a bit more complicated than that. Wenn deutsche Grammatik nur ein bisschen einfacher wäre… (If German grammar only was a little easier…).
Let’s discover together how to utter wishes like that — in other words, how to use the Subjunctive 1 and 2 in German.
The subjunctive mood, or Konjunktiv, is a German verb form used to indicate that something is not “indicative,” or happening in actual reality.
This could be the case when there is doubt that something has happened, when wanting to express a wish or when it’s necessary to state that something is dependent on specific conditions.
In German, we distinguish between two forms of the subjunctive: the present subjunctive, or Subjunctive 1, and the past subjunctive, or Subjunctive 2. While both are important, the Subjunctive 2 is more commonly used in German. We’ll explain both moods in more detail, but let’s start with a couple of examples to give you an idea of how each subjunctive form looks.
The present subjunctive is often used for reported speech or instructions and does not occur as often in conversational German:
Er sagte, sie lebe schon länger hier. (He said that she has been living here for longer.)
The past subjunctive mood is often used in conditional sentences to express hypotheticals and assumptions, as well as wishes and desires. One example for a conditional sentence is:
Wenn ich du wäre, dann würde ich mich beeilen. (If I were you, I would hurry up.)
You will seldomly encounter this mood in German — at least not in conversations. Mostly, Subjunctive 1 is used in writing to signal reported speech. It’s also used in technical writing, instructions and certain slogans.
Example of Subjunctive 1 in indirect speech:
Er sagt, er gehe heute ins Kino. (He says that he is going to the cinema today.)
Example of Subjunctive 1 in instructions:
Man nehme etwas Milch, Eier und Mehl und verrühre die Zutaten miteinander. (Take a bit of milk, eggs and flour and mix the ingredients together.)
Example of Subjunctive 1 in slogans:
Lang lebe die Königin! (Long live the queen!)
To form the present subjunctive in German, use the present stem of a verb and add present subjunctive endings to it. The big exception, as always, is sein (to be). Let’s have a look at some of the present subjunctive verb conjugations.
Forming the subjunctive with sein (to be):
| Pronoun | Present | Subjunctive 1 |
| ich | bin | sei |
| du | bist | seist |
| er/sie/es | ist | sei |
| wir | sind | seien |
| ihr | seid | seiet |
| Sie/sie | sind | seien |
Forming the present subjunctive with machen (to make):
| Pronoun | Present | Subjunctive 1 |
| ich | mache | mache |
| du | machst | machest |
| er/sie/es | macht | mache |
| wir | machen | machen |
| ihr | macht | machet |
| Sie/sie | machen | machen |
Forming the present subjunctive with sehen (to see):
| Pronoun | Present | Subjunctive 1 |
| ich | sehe | sähe |
| du | siehst | sähest |
| er/sie/es | sieht | sähe |
| wir | sehen | sähen |
| ihr | seht | sähet |
| Sie/sie | sehen | sähen |
The present subjunctive got its name from the way it is formed. The present stem of the verb is combined with the Subjunctive 1 ending.
But the present subjunctive can also be used to express hypothetical situations and reported speech in four tenses. Although that might sound confusing at first, the principle is rather simple: only the auxiliary verb is conjugated in Subjunctive 1.
Present: Er sagte, er gehe ins Kino.
Past: Er sagte, er sei ins Kino gegangen.
Future: Er sagte, er werde ins Kino gehen.
Future Perfect: Er sagte, er werde ins Kino gegangen sein.
You will encounter the Subjunctive 2 more frequently in German. You may have already used it when ordering a coffee!
As you may already know, it’s considered rude to use the indicative wollen (to want) and say Ich will einen Kaffee (I want a coffee). Instead, you should use the Subjunctive 2 to express your need for caffeine more politely: Ich hätte gerne einen Kaffee (I would like to have a coffee). The Subjunctive 2 softens your request, because it distances you from it and leaves the possibility for the waiter to deny it (though they probably won’t).
While the Subjunctive 1 is used for indirect speech or instructions, the Subjunctive 2 helps express wishes and requests. Furthermore, you can use it when you’re speaking about fictional scenarios. This is why the Subjunctive 2 can often be found in conditional sentences. Let’s look at some examples.
Example of Subjunctive 2 in requests:
Ich hätte gerne ein Stück Kuchen, bitte. (I would like to have a piece of cake, please.)
Example of Subjunctive 2 in conditional sentences:
Wenn ich Zeit hätte, würde ich spazieren gehen. (If I had time, I would go for a walk.)
Example of Subjunctive 2 in doubts:
Wir bezweifeln, dass sie uns helfen würden. (We doubt that they would help us.)
If the present subjunctive is formed with the present stem of the auxiliary verb, the past subjunctive must be formed with the past stem of the main verb, right?
Right!
However, this principle only applies to these eight modal verbs:
There’s another exception, but in this case, the exception makes things easier.
For all other verbs you can think of, you can use a combination of the past subjunctive form of werden (to become) and the infinitive. Consequently, the most important thing to learn is how to conjugate the Subjunctive 2 of werden.
Forming the past subjunctive with werden (to become):
| Pronoun | Subjunctive 2 |
| ich | würde |
| du | würdest |
| er/sie/es | würde |
| wir | würden |
| ihr | würdet |
| Sie/sie | würden |
Now that you know the Subjunctive 2 for the auxiliary verb werden, you can use it in combination with the infinitive of all other verbs (apart from the eight exceptions we mentioned above). Here’s what that looks like:
Wenn ich reich wäre, würde ich ein Haus kaufen. (If I were rich, I would buy a house).
Now, you will still have to learn how to conjugate the other eight verbs we mentioned above. Here’s what that looks like for können (can).
Forming the past subjunctive with können (can):
| Pronoun | Imperfect | Subjunctive 2 |
| ich | konnte | könnte |
| du | konntest | könntest |
| er/sie/es | konnte | könnte |
| wir | konnten | könnten |
| ihr | konntet | könntet |
| Sie/sie | konnten | könnten |
The subjunctive mood in German is one of the more advanced grammatical forms.
While the Subjunctive 1 is mostly used in written form, you will almost certainly come across the Subjunctive 2 in daily conversations. It helps you express wishes and doubts, and talk about hypothetical scenarios.
The good news is that the Subjunctive 2 often relies on the use of the subjunctive mood of werden and an infinitive, which is easy to remember. Make sure to use it as often as possible, and you’ll see that it’s not as difficult as it may seem.
