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indicative mood

This Grammar.com article is about indicative mood — enjoy your reading!


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  Ed Good  —  Grammar Tips
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First, understand this: The word mood has nothing to do with frame of mind, as in happy or sad. It actually refers to mode, which is the attribute of a verb suggesting the speaker's attitude toward the action expressed.

The mood of verbs shows how the speaker regards the utterance. The speaker might regard the utterance as a statement: that's the indicative mood. The speaker might ask a question: that's the interrogative mood. The speaker might issue a command: that's the imperative mood. Or the speaker might state a possibility, hope, wish, or hypothetical: that's the subjunctive mood.

Most sentences appear in the indicative mood, regardless of tense. The following show the indicative mood:

I write the book. (present tense)

I wrote the book. (past tense)

I will write the book. (future tense)

I will be writing the book. (future-progressive tense)

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