Be like Beyoncé...not Bieber!

This may sound a little strange; however, these two are a great way of getting to grips with the subjunctive. Beyoncé does it right in her song..."if I were a boy"; whereas, Bieber gets it wrong..."if I was your boyfriend". 

We learnt that the subjunctive is used to express wishes, hopes or possibilities. We knew that the key word to notice was 'were' and this is where Mr Bieber went wrong! In pairs we came up with our own subjunctive sentences.

If I were to have one wish, I would wish for happiness.

If I were you, I wouldn't do that!

If you were to have one wish, what would it be?

We then sorted some sentences and had to look for those that included the subjunctive form and those which did not.

Finally, we looked at the other use of the subjunctive: it can be used to make commands or requests sound more formal. We likened this to speaking like the king! We then had a go at creating our own subjunctive sentences to create formal commands - some of us only spoke in this way for the rest of the lesson!

I insist that no one go outside during the alien invasion.

We request that you put any litter in the bins provided.

I request that you allow me to visit the bathroom.