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A realis mood is a grammatical mood which is used principally to indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case) – in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in declarative sentences. Most languages have a single realis mood called the indicative mood, although some languages have additional realis moods, for example to express different levels of certainty. By contrast, an irrealis mood is used to express something that is not known to be the case in reality.

An example of the contrast between realis and irrealis moods is seen in the English sentences "He works" and "It is necessary that he work". In the first sentence works is a present indicative (realis) form of the verb, and is used to make a direct assertion about the real world. In the second sentence work is in the subjunctive mood, which is an irrealis mood – here that he work does not express (necessarily) a fact about the real world, but refers to what would be a desirable state of affairs.

However, since mood is a grammatical category, referring to the form a verb takes rather than its meaning in a given instance, a given language may use realis forms for a number of purposes other than their principal one of making direct factual statements. For example, many languages use indicative verb forms to ask questions (this is sometimes called interrogative mood) and in various other situations where the meaning is in fact of the irrealis type (as in the English "I hope it works", where the indicative works is used even though it refers to a desired rather than real state of affairs).

Realis mood can be indicated by the glossing abbreviation REAL (and indicative mood by IND).

Indicative

The indicative mood or, rarely, the declarative mood, (abbreviated IND) is used for factual statements and positive beliefs, for example, "Paul is eating an apple." or "John eats apples." All intentions that a particular language does not categorize as another mood are classified as indicative. It is the most commonly used mood and is found in all languages. [2]

English indicative

History

Template:Historical overview of English Indicative (table)

Modern English

The indicative mood is for statements of actuality or strong probability:

The spine-tailed swift flies faster than any other bird in the world.
The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers rose to record heights in 1993.
Mid-westerners will remember the flooding for many years to come.
One may use "do", "does", or "did" with the indicative for emphasis.

Indicative Mood

Present indicative:	Jerry laughs on television.
Past indicative:	Jerry laughed on television.
Future indicative:	Jerry will laugh on television tomorrow.

Generic

The generic mood is used to generalize about a particular class of things, e.g. in "Rabbits are fast", one is speaking about rabbits in general, rather than about particular fast rabbits. English has no means of morphologically distinguishing generic mood from indicative mood; however, the distinction can easily be understood in context by surrounding words. Compare, for example: rabbits are fast, versus, those rabbits are fast. Use of the demonstrative pronoun those implies specific, particular rabbits, whereas omitting it implies the generic mood simply by default.

Ancient Greek had a kind of generic mood, the so-called gnomic tense, marked by the aorist indicative (normally reserved for statements about the past). It was used especially to express philosophical truths about the world.

Declarative

The declarative mood (abbreviated DEC) indicates that the statement is true, without any qualifications being made. It is in many languages equivalent to the indicative mood, although sometimes distinctions between them are drawn. It is closely related with the inferential mood.

Energetic

Found in Classical Arabic and various other Semitic languages, the energetic mood expresses something which is strongly believed or which the speaker wishes to emphasize, e.g. yaktubanna يَكتُبَنَّ ("he certainly writes").

References

[2] http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_most_common_mood_used_in_English_mood http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110220144323AARbUuN

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-A '''realis mood''' is a [[grammatical mood]] which is used principally to indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case) – in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs. The most common realis mood is the '''indicative mood'''. By contrast, an [[irrealis mood]] is used to express something that is not known to be the case in reality.
+A '''realis mood''' is a [[grammatical mood]] which is used principally to indicate that something is actually the case (or actually not the case) – in other words, to express what the speaker considers to be a known state of affairs, as in [[declarative sentence]]s. Most languages have a single realis mood called the '''indicative mood''', although some languages have additional realis moods, for example to express different levels of certainty. By contrast, an [[irrealis mood]] is used to express something that is not known to be the case in reality.
 An example of the contrast between realis and irrealis moods is seen in the [[English grammar|English]] sentences "He works" and "It is necessary that he work". In the first sentence ''works'' is a [[present indicative]] (realis) form of the verb, and is used to make a direct assertion about the real world. In the second sentence ''work'' is in the [[English subjunctive|subjunctive mood]], which is an irrealis mood – here ''that he work'' does not express (necessarily) a fact about the real world, but refers to what would be a desirable state of affairs.
-However, since mood is a [[grammatical category]], referring to the form a verb takes rather than the purpose for which it is used in a given instance, a given language may use realis forms for a number of purposes other than their principal one of making direct factual statements. For example, many languages use indicative verb forms to ask questions (this is sometimes called [[interrogative mood]]) and in various situations where the meaning is in fact of the irrealis type (as in the English "I hope it works", where the indicative ''works'' is used even though it refers to a desired rather than real state of affairs).
+However, since mood is a [[grammatical category]], referring to the form a verb takes rather than its meaning in a given instance, a given language may use realis forms for a number of purposes other than their principal one of making direct factual statements. For example, many languages use indicative verb forms to ask questions (this is sometimes called [[interrogative mood]]) and in various other situations where the meaning is in fact of the irrealis type (as in the English "I hope it works", where the indicative ''works'' is used even though it refers to a desired rather than real state of affairs).
 Realis mood can be indicated by the [[list of glossing abbreviations|glossing abbreviation]] {{sc|'''real'''}} (and indicative mood by {{sc|'''ind'''}}).