Subjunctivitis

An it be so, it were a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
-- Shakespeare

   Subjunctivitis: An unexplained grammatical phenomenon in which educators claim the subjunctive mood is no longer in use.

   For years, students were told that speakers and writers of the English language had stopped using the subjunctive, or conditional mood. Reality: It never went away, and is still regularly used even by those who are unaware they are doing so. How can this be? Because the study of grammar gives you names for things you already know.
   Some of the most effective use of the subjunctive -- when something is "sub-joined" to something else as a condition of its relevance -- is found in the works of William Shakespeare. But if truth be told (a subjunctive phrase), such usage is not a relic of Shakespearean or Victorian era writing, because it remains in use today.
   There are only three moods in English language writing -- the Indicative: "It is," a description; the Imperative, "Do it!" a command; and the Subjunctive, "If it be ..." a concept with conditions attached.
   Educators were prone to claim that the Indicative was used instead of the Subjunctive. That is, people would say, "If that was true ... " But for many users, when they hear that construction, it jars a bit. They feel it's somehow wrong, and they don't know why. However, on a subconscious level, they know because they have internalized the grammatical rules of their native language by the age of six. Later, when they go to school, teachers try to give them names for the grammatical functions. However, they often fail because students find the presentation boring.
   The point is, you don't have to know the technical and grammatical terms for the phrasings you perpetrate, but good writers know the rules and follow them. Except when they need a special effect.
   But you have to know the rules before you can successfully achieve the dialectal effect you want. And if you have any doubts, look it up in your style manual. You know, the one you had to buy for your Freshman Comp class in college but never read?