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When to use the subjunctive: some difficult casesOn the previous pages, we saw various circumstances where the French subjunctive is triggered. In general, these circumstances fit in with our statement that the subjunctive expresses a non-assertion. There are some other cases that are more difficult to rationalise and to some extent are just a matter of convention. espérer takes the indicativeThe verb espérer, meaning "to hope", is the verb par excellence for introducing a non-assertion. But conventionally, it takes a normal indicative:
j'espère qu'elle pourra venir
I hope she'll be able to come  Suggest a change / proposez une modificationOne view is that espérer nonetheless leans in favour of the event actually being realised, i.e. introduces "more of an assertion" than, say, désirer or souhaiter, which do trigger the subjunctive (Leeman-Bouix, 1994, quoted in Rowlett (2007:149) and Jones (1997:189)). But not only is this argument tentative, but it is to some extent unnecessary. There is a tendency in informal speech for speakers to in fact use the subjunctive with espérer:
j'espère qu'elle puisse venir
I hope she'll be able to come Suggest a change / proposez une modificationSo an alternative view is that speakers do indeed 'naturally' treat espérer as taking a non-assertion triggering the subjunctive, just like its other synonyms. The use of espérer with the indicative is largely an 'artificial' prescriptive convention. si takes the indicative but que (meaning 'if') triggers the subjunctiveThe conjunction si generally takes indicative, again despite the fact that it seems an excellent candidate for introducing a non-assertion:
si elle vient, on peut lui demander...
if she comes, we can ask her... si jamais tu veux nous contacter, voici notre adresse if ever you want to contact us, here is our address s'il pleuvait, je serais obligé de rester chez moi if it rained, I'd be forced to stay home Suggest a change / proposez une modificationOn top of this, que, when used to mean 'if' or 'whether', triggers the subjunctive. The latter can be used in coordination with si, or on its own:
s'il fait beau, et qu'il ne fasse pas trop chaud, on peut...
if it's fine, and not too hot, we can... que tu viennes ou que tu ne viennes pas, moi j'irai whether you come or not, I'll be going Suggest a change / proposez une modification"Assertion toggling", and the verbs penser and croireThe 'cognitive' verbs penser and croire generally behave as though they introduce direct speech, and take the indicative:
elle pense/croit que c'est vrai
she thinks/believes it's true Suggest a change / proposez une modificationHowever, they often trigger the subjunctive in either the negated or, more particularly, interrogative forms1:
elle ne pense/croit pas que ce soit vrai
she doesn't think/believe it's true croit-elle que ce soit vrai? does she believe it's true? Suggest a change / proposez une modificationHowever, when the verb is both negated and interrogative, the form generally "flips" back to the indicative (Abouda, 2001: 20):
ne croit-elle pas que c'est vrai?
does she not believe it's true? Suggest a change / proposez une modificationThus, negation and interrogation are sometimes referred to as "assertion toggling" operations. In isolation, either can switch the indicative to the subjunctive, but together they 'cancel each other out'. Note that this toggling effect can also apply to adjectives such as possible (cf Rowlett, 2007:150). Aussi/tout/quelque/si ... que ..., Autant que ...Prescriptively, autant que... ("as far as...") takes the indicative except in the construction autant que je sache (Thomas, 1971:44). But in case that was ever actual usage, there's now a tendency to extend the subjunctive to other verbs. Price (2003:374) suggests that the choice depends on the 'degree of certainty or uncertainty the clause is intended to express'. A quick Google search suggests a roughly 50:50 split between (pour) autant que je m'en souviens and (pour) autant que je m'en souvienne ("as far as I remember"). The constructions aussi ... que, tout ... que and quelque ... que, si ... que are used in expressions such as:
tout père que je suis
father as I am tout riche qu'il est rich as he is tout riche qu'il soit however rich he might be aussi bizarre que cela puisse paraître si bizarre que cela paraisse however strange it may appear quelque difficile que cela paraisse however difficult this may seem quelque difficile que puisse être ce travail however difficult this work may be Suggest a change / proposez une modificationtout triggers indicative or subjunctive depending on whether the 'factual nature of the statement is stressed' (Price 2001:378). The use with the subjunctive corresponds roughly to cases where English uses however. The other constructions appear to systematically trigger the subjunctive. Subjunctive "leaking"There are some cases in both English and French where a logically unexpected form occurs because one word influences or 'leaks' on to a nearby word or, structurally, one language feature 'percolates' or 'leaks' down from one word to words that it governs. Interestingly, the French subjunctive is an example of such leaking. Rowlett (2007:153) gives the following example:
je ne voulais pas qu'elle croie que je sois triste de rester
I didn't want her to believe that I was sad to be staying Suggest a change / proposez une modificationStrictly speaking, there's no logical reason to expect the subjunctive here, at least in terms of what verb directly governs what: voulais selects a subjunctive, croie. But qu'elle croie que... is a non-negative, non-interrogative form of croire, which under such circumstances usually takes the indicative. A negative main clause generally triggers a subjunctive in its subordinate clause, but que je sois... isn't directly subordinate to the main clause. What seems to have happened is that the negation plus preceding subjunctive form have somehow 'induced' or 'leaked' a subjunctive in the bottom clause2. Note
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