Verbal "mood" (real / non-real)

Qohenje has essentially two moods: Realis (traditionally "Indicative"), and Irrealis. (Qohenje grammar treats the Imperative Mood like a tense, which is where the Imperative forms are presented.)

The two moods define two distinct sets of tense auxiliaries (see Tense).

Realis mood

Realis (RE) mood is the mood in which normal stative events are relations are expressed, if the speaker considers them to be factual or documented, or else to be referring to probable, real or plausible situations etc. Like the "indicative" mood in Romance languages, this is the normal, unmarked "vanilla" mood for verbal relations.

Irrealis mood

Qohenje's irrealis (IR) mood is employed when the speaker cannot, or does not want to vouch for the validity, reality, credibility or trustworthiness of the information they are conveying. Learners often mistakenly assume that employing this mood will convey irony, disrespect or condemnation on the events expressed, but to the Jihira-Tejlija way of thinking, this is not at all the case. In speaking with the IR mood, the speaker simply dissociates herself from the truth value of the verbal relations, without any hint of negative judgement involved. A situation expressed in IR verbals may be every bit as real and factual as a situation expressed in Re verbals, the only difference being the degree to which the speaker is willing to guanrantee the truth value of the utterance.

The implication of the IR mood can often be adequately captured in translation with an adverb (probably, maybe, possibly) or else with an adjunct such as "It seems as if...", "It seems likely that...", "As far as I can tell..." or "It is said that...".

Consider the following examples,