The system of three moods

The most widely accepted system in traditional grammar, which we come across in school grammars and textbooks, is the system of three moods: Indicative, Imperative and Subjunctive. These are sometimes called the Fact-Mood, the Will-Mood and the Thought-Mood respectively (Sweet, Curnie, Jespersen). It is similar to Latin. Moreover, the same system of moods exists in Russian.

In both languages the Indicative mood represents an action as a fact: He is here – он здесь; He said so - Ohmaк сказал.

The Imperative mood expresses the speaker's inducement (order, request, command, and the like) addressed to another person to do something: Come here – иди сюда!; Wake up - Bcmaвай.

The Subjunctive Mood shows actions as non-facts, but the range of meanings proposed includes those which are not modal (unreal condition, unlikely condition, consequence of unreal condition, wish, purpose and the like). Moreover, their means of expression are heterogeneous (synthetic and "analytical", as well as homonymous), which seems suspect.

Apart from the Fact-Mood and Will-Mood, the Thought-Mood is further subdivided by some linguists. These subdivisions are Subjunctive (be/were), Permissive (may/might/let + infinitive), Tense-Mood (lived, had lived), Conditional (should/would + infinitive), and Compulsive (be + infinitive). This yields a system of seven moods (Sweet), which is subject to criticism just like A.I.Smirnitsky's system.