| mood |
| Definition: A way of categorizing a verb in relation to the semantic purpose of the sentence (e.g., whether the sentence is a command, a question, or a wish). |
| Example:
Some of the moods that exist or have existed in English are: (1) optative mood: "Heaven forfend!" (used to expresses desire, archaic) (2) indicative mood: "Bob is walking the dog." (used for factual statements) (3) generic mood: "Turtles are slow." (used to make generalizations) (4) conditional mood: "Bob would smile if he were happy." (used to refer to events that will happen if something else it true) (5) imperative mood: "Let's go!" (expresses commands) (6) interrogative mood: "What's up?" (used for questioning) (7) subjunctive mood: "I suggested that David read some tea leaves." (used to discuss hypothetical events or to make polite requests, archaic) |
| Etymology: It was coined by modifying the word mode(from the Latin modus, manner); thus, grammatical mood is unrelated to emotional mood. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The first OED citation for the word mood in its grammatical sense is from 1573: "How shall men directly fynde The Coniugation, Nomber, Person, Tence, And Moode of Verbes togither in their kynde?" (Golding in Baret Alv. To Rdr. viii) |