European International Journal of Philological Sciences
18
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TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
18-20
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
12 April 2025
ACCEPTED
08 May 2025
PUBLISHED
10 June 2025
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue 06 2025
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
Comparative
Characteristics of Verb
Moods in Russian And
English Languages
Abdumalikova Nozaninbonu
3rd year student of the direction “Philology and language teaching:
Russian language”
, Uzbekistan
Abstract
: The article explores the grammatical category
of verb mood in Russian and English from a comparative
linguistic perspective. It provides an analysis of the
forms and means of expressing the indicative,
imperative, and subjunctive moods. The study identifies
similarities and differences in the structure and function
of moods in both languages. Special attention is given to
the morphological and syntactic mechanisms of
expressing modality, as well as the challenges faced by
language learners.
Keywords:
Verb, mood, indicative, imperative,
subjunctive, modality, comparative linguistics, Russian
language, English language, grammatical category.
Introduction:
The grammatical category of mood
occupies an important place in the system of verb forms
in both Russian and English. It reflects the speaker's
attitude to the action: reality, possibility, desirability or
necessity of its implementation. Despite the general
functional orientation, the realization of the category of
mood in these two languages differs in formal, semantic
and syntactic features. The purpose of this article is to
conduct a comparative analysis of verb moods in
Russian and English, to identify their common and
distinctive features.
The mood category is related to modal-grammatical
categories and expresses the relation of an action to
reality. In traditional grammar, three main moods are
distinguished:
Indicative - the action actually occurs, has occurred, or
will occur.
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European International Journal of Philological Sciences
Imperative - expresses an order, request, or advice.
Conditional / subjunctive - the action has not occurred,
but is possible under certain conditions.
In Russian, mood is expressed morphologically, i.e.
with the help of suffixes, particles and verb forms. In
English, mood is largely expressed syntactically and
relies on auxiliary verbs, modal constructions and
context.
The system of moods in the Russian language
Mood
Example
Means of expression
Indicative
He is writing a letter
Personal ending, tense
Conditional
He would write a letter
Particle would, past tense
Imperative
Write a letter!
Imperative form
The indicative mood expresses real actions and has
forms of the present, past and future tenses.
The conditional mood (subjunctive) is formed using the
particl
e біл and the past tense form: If he had come,
we would have started.
The imperative mood is used to express will: Tell me the
truth!
The system of moods in English
Mood
Example
Means of expression
Indicative
He writes a letter
Simple form, tenses
Imperative
Write a letter !
Base form of the verb
Subjunctive I
I suggest that he write a
letter.
The construction of the
type "that + be bare
infinitive"
Subjunctive II
If he were here…
Special form of the verb
(were instead of was)
The English mood includes:
Indicative - used to describe real events.
Imperative - expresses a command or request.
Subjunctive - exists in two forms:
Subjunctive I (formal style, especially in American
English): It is essential that he be informed.
Subjunctive II (conditional constructions and expression
of unreality): If I were you…
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European International Journal of Philological Sciences
Examples for comparison
Indicative mood:
Russian: Не женат в туре.
English: She studies at the university.
Imperative mood:
Russian: Закрый окно!
English: Close the window!
Conditional/subjunctive mood:
Russian: И нас мне мне не как мне.
English: If I had known, I would have come
Translation and learning difficulties
Due to differences in grammatical structure, mood
categories cause difficulties for learners of both
languages. Russian-speaking students often miss the
features of subjunctive mood in English, especially in
formal contexts. At the same time, English-speaking
students have difficulty with the correct use of the
particle and imperative forms in Russian.
Thus, despite the functional similarity, the realization
of moods in Russian and English differs significantly.
Russian predominantly uses morphological means of
expression, while English uses syntactic and auxiliary
constructions. Understanding these differences is
important for both theoretical linguistics and the
practice of teaching foreign languages.
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