Subjonctive is a verb tense that I use in French when you would use infinitive. For example, you'd say "I want you to sing a song". [to sing = infinitive]. I would say " Je veux que tu chantes une chanson" [que tu chantes = subjonctive] Subjonctive looks like other verb tense (present for the verb finishing in ER) so yopu probably used it or saw it already without noticing it. Subjonctive is used in many cases, but most commonly with expressions like "j'aimerais que", "il faut que", etc. The important word is "que" + pronoun.

actually we have subjunctive tense in English, we just don't really notice it as much since the conjugations of the verbs don't change so much in our native tongue, and since we don't really use it often. "Do you know when she might come?" is an example of the subjunctive "mood". I think this should be a one-to-one analogy with le subjonctif in french. I think that should help you get your head around it. If not, I'll be happy to follow up.. :) Fun fact to keep in mind as an english speaker who is learning french - english is really a mix of like 40% german, 40% french, and 20% latin. so it will definitely help you learn french in certain ways :) some recommendations: learn the "trigger words" for subjunctive. for example, anything that comes after "il faut que" should be in the subjunctive. also, luckily, for most verbs, it doesn't change very much (like -er verbs) but "special" verbs have often quite different subjunctive conjugations: il faut que tu *fasses* honestly, it's not really that important, when compared with learning more vocabulary. but certain verbs are so commonly used that you need to learn them, the above is a great example, you never say "il faut que tu fais" .... since "falloir" is so common, you should practice it often since you will hear it often... here is some good reading for you: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080805074227AASJMHA http://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/understanding-french-subjunctive