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Desiderative mood

Grammar
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A grammatical mood expressing a desire or wish for an action to occur, often signaled by modal verbs or subjunctive constructions in poetry.

Detailed Definition
The Desiderative mood expresses wish, longing, or desire (e.g., “I would like to go”), often marked by specific verb forms in Sanskrit or Japanese; in English poetry, desiderative force emerges through modal verbs (“would,” “wish”), subjunctive constructions, or yearning imagery, central to elegy, pastoral, and love lyric where unfulfilled desire structures emotional and rhetorical arcs.
Example
Example in poetry:
Desiderative mood: "Would that I could fly like a bird!"—expressing a strong wish or desire, common in Sanskrit and occasionally rendered in English poetic invocations.
Additional Notes
Grammatical mood expressing wish or desire. Found in optative and subjunctive constructions. Creates yearning tone in lyric poetry. Compare with imperative mood. Common in elegies and love poetry.
Also Known As
Wishing mood Longing mode Desiring tense Want-expressing form
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