Hmm. It’s important to question even such a small thing.

Of course. First of all, let’s start with “fu-tei-shi (infinitive)”. Try to think why by yourselves.

I understand you. Good idea, but the meaning of “fu-tei” here is not “indeterminate.” It actually means that the form doesn’t change at all according to tenses, numbers and agents.

You’re right. So, “fu-toku-tei-shi (unspecified) might be appropriate for infinitive.

In the first place, you should ask yourself when you use infinitive.

Umm. In other words, “bun-shi (participle)” means having two functions, which are adjectives and verbs.

It may be easier to understand if it’s called “kyo-yu-shi (share words).”

Do you know there are three moods in English?

Well, yes, both of them are moods. Right. And, remember the other one is called indicative mood.

If you use the subjunctive mood, you can express your emotion or talk about unrealistic situations. The imperative mood is used when you order or request someone to do something. You usually use indicative mood in just ordinary sentences without realizing it.

It must be so. Since we use it like it’s the most natural thing every day, students don’t learn it at school.

The verb form is the key to understand well. The past tense form in the indicative mood simply shows past events, but in the conjunctive mood, the past tense form represents the present where you could express your wish or expectation, or show your doubt.

In the old days, each of the moods had its specific form, but there is no such form now, so it’s difficult to distinguish them.

Yes. Currently, we need to identify should, would or were in a sentence to tell if it’s the subjunctive mood or not. What if you change “went” into “go” in the example sentence I gave before?

Well, this sentence doesn’t convey the speaker’s discontented feeling. If you use the conjunctive mood in the sentence, you can express your emotion in it by using the past tense instead of the present tense.