Jussive mood

Key takeaways

Jussive mood belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jussive mood to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jussive mood from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The jussive (abbreviated jus) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood, but the modal verb "should" is commonly used for the same purpose. The mood is similar to the cohortative mood, which typically applies to the first person by appeal to the object's duties and obligations, and the imperative, which applies to the second person (by command). The jussive however typically covers the first and third persons. It can also apply to orders by their author's wish in the mandative subjunctive, as in the English, "The bank insists that she repay her debt."

Examples

Arabic Classical and Standard Arabic verbs conjugate for at least three distinct moods in the imperfect: indicative, subjunctive and jussive.

The main use of this mood is in negative commands.

The jussive form is also used in past tense sentences negated by lam لم (but not mā ما).

Esperanto The jussive mood can be expressed in Esperanto using the volitive verb form, which is made by adding -u to a verb stem.

Iru! (Go!) Mi petis, ke li venu. (I asked him to come.) Li parolu. (Let him speak.) Ni iru. (Let's go.) Mia filino belu! (May my daughter be beautiful!)

Finnish While there is a separate imperative form in Finnish, the jussive mood is used for the third person, where the imperative is not suitable. The jussive's ending is -koon ~ -köön in the singular and -koot ~ -kööt in the plural. The jussive can be used to express speakers' positions or opinions that somebody is allowed to do something or that somebody is expected to do something.

German In the German language, the jussive mood is expressed using the present subjunctive (named Konjunktiv I or Möglichkeitsform I in German). It is typical of formal documents or religious texts, such as the Bible. Because it was more common in past centuries, it has often survived in proverbs:

It is still common that recipes are written in jussive mood:

Apart from that, jussive mood is still quite common in contemporary German. However, the pronouns he, she, and it might not be used directly; otherwise jussive would be mistaken for a dated form of courteous imperative. Instead, they will have to be replaced by "who", "someone", "everyone", "the new colleague" and so on:

Finally, an example for jussive that would have served as a courteous imperative when addressing people of lower, but not lowest, rank:

Note that Er is written in capital letters here. Even if this construction is not used anymore in common German, it will be recognized as being an imperative (German Wikipedia lists the example Sei Er nicht so streng! as a historic form of an imperative).

Hindi For the non-aspectual verb forms, Hindi uses the subjunctive forms as imperatives for the formal 2nd person and the 3rd person singular and plural grammatical persons.

jussive mood - 2P formal

jussive mood - 3P singular

jussive mood - 3P plural

Latin In the Latin language, the present subjunctive has a usage labelled the "jussive subjunctive" or coniunctivus iussivus that expresses 3rd-person orders:

Adiuvet ("Let him help.") Veniant ("Let them come.") A jussive use of the present subjunctive is also attested for the second person in sayings and poetry, as well as in early Latin.

iniurias fortunae [...] relinquas ("Leave behind [...] the wrongs of Fortune", saying from Cicero's Tusculanae Disputationes) doceas iter ("Show us the way", poetry from Virgil's Aeneid)

Russian The jussive mood in modern Russian serves as an imperative (for issuing orders, commanding or requesting), but covers third person instead of second person. It is always formed with a particle пусть, which is derived from the verb пускать (to let, to allow).

Imperative: Беги! (Run!) Jussive: Пусть бежит (similar to Let him run)

Turkish The jussive mood in Turkish serves as an imperative (for issuing orders, commanding or requesting), but covers third person (both singular and plural) instead of second person. The negative, interrogative and negative-interrogative forms are also possible.

Imperative: koş! (Run!) Jussive: koşsun! (similar to Let him/her run or he/she shall run) Jussive: koşsunlar! (similar to Let them run or they shall run) Imperative: koşma! (Don't run!) Jussive: koşmasın! (similar to Don't let him/her run or he/she shall not run) Jussive: koşmasınlar! (similar to Don't let them run or they shall not run)

References

Further reading Dobrushina, Nina (2012). "What is the jussive for? A study of third person commands in six Caucasian Languages". Linguistics. 50 (1): 1–25. doi:10.1515/ling-2012-0001. S2CID 146989136. Bar-Adon, Aaron (1966). "New Imperative and Jussive Formations in Contemporary Hebrew". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 86 (4): 410–3. doi:10.2307/596497. JSTOR 596497. Orlinsky, Harry M. (1941). "On the Cohortative and Jussive after an Imperative or Interjection in Biblical Hebrew". The Jewish Quarterly Review. 31 (4): 371–82. doi:10.2307/1452235. JSTOR 1452235. Huehnergard, John (1987). "The Feminine Plural Jussive in Old Aramaic". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. 137 (2): 266–77. JSTOR 43379556. Palmer, F. R. (2001). "Imperative and Jussive". Mood and Modality. Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–42. ISBN 978-0-521-80479-0.

External links The dictionary definition of jussive at Wiktionary

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jussive mood

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jussive mood claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jussive mood before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jussive mood ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jussive mood

In research: Jussive mood appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jussive mood in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jussive mood is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Grammatical moods, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jussive mood outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Jussive mood in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jussive mood means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jussive mood out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jussive mood in simple terms?

The jussive (abbreviated jus) is a grammatical mood of verbs for issuing orders, commanding, or exhorting (within a subjunctive framework). English verbs are not marked for this mood, but the modal verb "should" is commonly used for the same purpose.

Why does Jussive mood matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jussive mood?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jussive mood.