The term “indicative” refers to the grammatical “mood” of a verb in a clause. The indicative mood could be described as the ordinary, everyday mood expressed in most statements. It is used for what is or what we see as reality, so it is the mood that most verbs take when we speak or write. It is not very meaningful, however, to explain the meaning of “indicative” without comparing it with the term “subjunctive.” Both these words refer to grammatical “mood” as expressed by the verb in a particular clause. For example, the sentence “I know that he sees a doctor about it” contains two clauses that are both in the indicative mood—1) “I know” and 2) “he sees a doctor about it.” In the sentence “I insist that he see a doctor about it,” there is one clause in the indicative (“I insist”), and there is a second clause in the subjunctive (“he see a doctor about it”). Notice the form of the verb in the subjunctive clause. It is grammatically correct but it does not end with “-s” as one would normally expect in standard English. The subjunctive mood of the verb shows that the action is not real or under the speaker’s control. It refers to some action that is purely hypothetical. Again, most statements we make in English use verbs in the indicative mood. The use of the subjunctive mood is much more limited. Please see further discussion under SUBJUNCTIVE.
