Being subject to the subjunctive

The subjunctive mood in English is less developed than in Latin.

I COMMITTED at least one gaffe in my previous article entitled Words that look or sound alike (MOE, 7 May 2010). The opening sentence of the article read: “The other day my friend ... suggested that I wrote about the words continuing, continual, and continuous” (the underline not in the original). Kee Thuan Chye, founder and retired editor of the MOE page, promptly sent me an SMS asking why I used the word wrote instead of write. I replied that I wrote wrote to follow from and accord with suggested, a verb in the past tense in the indicative mood. I soon had second thoughts, and realised that I should have used the word write, instead of wrote, in the said sentence. Thank you, Mr Kee, for having hinted about the gaffe.