ABSTRACT
The subjunctive mood, particularly the form of the subjunctive in German known as the Konjunktiv I, is used to indicate reported speech: it signals that someone other than the writer of the text has made a particular statement, e.g. the use of the subjunctive in Dies entspreche auch der deutschen Politik ‘this also corresponds to German policy’ (line 4) makes it clear that the foreign minister Westerwelle made this statement, not the writer of the report. The subjunctive is primarily a feature of the written language – it is used extensively in newspaper reports and in literary texts – and tends to be avoided in spoken German, where the indicative is preferred. The subjunctive can be used in the present tense: e.g. Dies entspreche … , the perfect tense: Der Präsident habe ein international vernehmbares Signal gesendet ‘the President has sent a signal to be heard internationally’ (9-10) and, less commonly, in the future tense (e.g. werde plus infinitive).
