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Because modern English does not have all of the moods described below, and has a very simplified system of verb inflection as well, it is not straightforward to explain the moods in English. Note, too, that the exact sense of each mood differs from language to language.
Grammatical mood per se is not the same thing as grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar as the same word patterns are used to express more than one of these concepts at the same time.
Currently identified moods include conditional, imperative, indicative, injunctive, negative, optative, potential, subjunctive, and more. The original Indo-European inventory of moods was indicative, subjunctive, optative, and imperative. Not every Indo-European language has each of these moods, but the most conservative ones such as Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit retain them all. Some Uralic Samoyedic languages have over ten moods.
The indicative mood is used in factual statements. All intentions in speaking that a particular language does not put into another mood use the indicative. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all languages. Example: "Paul is reading books" or "Paul reads books".
The imperative mood expresses commands, direct requests, prohibitions. In many circumstances, directly using the imperative mood seems blunt or even rude, so it is often used with care. Example: "Paul, read that book".
Many languages, including English, use the bare verb stem to form the imperative. In English, second-person is implied by the imperative except when first-person plural is specified, as in "Let's go."
The subjunctive mood has several uses in independent clauses. Examples include discussing hypothetical or unlikely events, expressing opinions or emotions, or making polite requests (the exact scope is language-specific). A subjunctive mood exists in English, but appears to be falling out of common use; many native English speakers do not use it. Example: "I suggested that Paul read books". Paul is not in fact reading the book. Contrast this with the sentence "Paul reads books", where the verb read has the third person singular ending. Another way, especially in British English, of expressing this might be "I suggested that Paul should read books.", derived from "Paul should read books." Other uses of the subjunctive in English, as in "And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass..." ( KJV Leviticus 5:7) have definitely become archaic.
The subjunctive mood figures prominently in the grammar of the Romance languagesThe Romance languages also called Romanic languages are a subfamily of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Vulgar Latin dialects spoken by the common people evolving in different areas after the break-up of the Roman Empire. Latin it, which require this mood for certain types of dependent clauses. This point commonly causes difficulty for English speakers learning these languages.
The conditional mood is used to express uncertainty, particularly (but not exclusively) in conditional clauses. In the phrase "If I were king, you would be queen", "were" is subjunctive while "would be" is conditional. The conditional mood is sometimes considered a tense rather than a mood.