In English grammar, the concept of 'grammatical mood' does not refer to our emotions as the word 'mood' typically does. Instead, it helps us comprehend the purpose and interpretation of a sentence. This includes determining whether a sentence is a question, demand, statement, wish, or other types of expression.
But what exactly does grammatical mood mean?
Grammatical mood refers to the use of verb forms to indicate the purpose and understanding of a sentence. This can involve expressing facts, beliefs, requests, commands, hypothetical situations, possibilities, suggestions, and conditions.
There are five main types of grammatical mood in English.
Let's take a closer look at the interrogative mood.
The interrogative mood is the use of verb forms to indicate that the sentence is a question. This can include words like 'who', 'what', 'when', 'where', 'why', 'how', and verb phrases that request information or clarification.
The interrogative mood has a distinct form that shows the sentence is a question. Unlike some other moods, the main verb of the sentence remains unchanged. Instead, an auxiliary verb is used along with the main verb and is placed before the subject of the sentence. An auxiliary verb is a 'helping' verb that provides information about grammatical categories such as tense, aspect, mood, and voice. Some examples of auxiliary verbs include 'be', 'can', 'do', 'have', 'may', 'must', 'will', and 'would'.
There are two key features of the interrogative mood that allow us to identify it in text.
By looking for these features, we can easily determine when a sentence is written in the interrogative mood.