student asking question

Why did he used subjunctive here?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

The subjunctive mood is used in this case because he is discussing something which may or not happen, but that he hopes will happen. The subjunctive mood is often used to express a hypothetical situation or pose and idea that someone wishes could happen. In this case he is asking hypothetically whether it would be okay to ask her out, and so asking in the subjunctive mood is a way for him to not ask her directly and feel less rejected if she says no.

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