{"id":888,"date":"2020-06-11T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/?p=888"},"modified":"2020-07-30T00:53:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T21:53:37","slug":"mood-and-word-order-in-biblical-hebrew-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/2020\/06\/mood-and-word-order-in-biblical-hebrew-pt-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Word order in Biblical Hebrew, pt. 2: Real and Irreal Mood (a)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I am working on a post on real and irreal mood.  It is really long, so I think I\u2019m going to cut it into further parts. Besides, Jason reminded me that \u201cNo one knows what real and irreal moods are!\u201d So, that\u2019s what this post is for.<\/p>\n

Real and irreal mood is more or less the same thing as the indicative and subjunctive moods in English. Real mood (indicative) is a statement grounded in reality.  Most often, this is a simple statement.<\/p>\n

Irreal (subjunctive) mood includes sentences or statements that are one step removed from reality, i.e., something that may or may not have happened. \u201cIrreal\u201d is a linguistic description derived from the Latin irrealis. <\/em>Irreal mood may also be called \u201cunreal\u201d mood.<\/p>\n

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Since more and more grammarians are looking at Biblical Hebrew from a linguistical standpoint, some grammarians have opted to change the name by which they categorize verbs.  I have adapted the views of John Cook and Holmstedt (their blog is available here<\/strong><\/a>) as presented in their grammar, available here<\/a><\/strong>. They classify the traditional wayyiqtol <\/em>or waw-<\/em>consecutive imperfect form as Past Narrative, while they call the traditional waw<\/em>-consecutive perfect as the \u201cirreal perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the irreal perfect, irreal mood is also expressed by:<\/p>\n