Grammatical term referring to the subjunctive mood, used to express hypothetical, wished, or contrary-to-fact situations. In Japanese, this often corresponds to conditional forms like 〜ば, 〜たら, or 〜なら.
The English subjunctive mood does not completely correspond to Japanese conditional expressions.
The past perfect subjunctive expresses a hypothesis contrary to past facts.
subjunctive past
subjunctive equivalent
subjunctive past perfect
Compound of 仮定 (assumption, hypothesis) and 法 (law, rule, method), literally 'method of supposition'. A calque from Western grammatical terminology.