linguoboy wrote:As for subjunctive forms, it has two: Konjunktiv 1 and Konjunktiv 2. Konjunktiv 1 looks very similar to the indicative, differing chiefly in the 3S forms, e.g. habe for hat.
The second person forms differ, too, retaining the "e" that the indicative forms have lost: "du sagest/ihr saget" compared to indicative "du sagst/ihr sagt".
What cannot be seen from these simple examples is that verbs with umlaut in the second/third person indicative don't have that umlaut in the subjunctive, also irregular verbs tend to use a stem closer to the infinitive: "ich will/wolle", "ich kann/könne", "ich darf/dürfe", "ich bin/sei", ..., "du trägst/tragest", "du gibst/gebest", "er läuft/laufe".
It can also be replaced with the indicative in its chief use, which is to represent reported speech: Sie sagt, sie habe ein Auto and Sie sagt, sie hat ein Auto are both correct, with the latter being more common in speech.
Using the indicative there is colloquial speech, and as you say very common there. Still, in a newspaper, I wouldn't consider it optional. If a newspaper uses the indicative instead of subjunctive, that looks unprofessional to me. Which is at least partly because...
caleteu wrote:The Konjunktiv 1 (and nowadays the Konjunktiv 2) is used for indirect speech, when you are unsure whether the statement is true or not. The indicative indicates that you believe the statement.
...Konjunktiv I is the proper neutral form for reported speech. Konjunktiv II signals doubt, whereas indicative accepts the reported statement as true.
German does have a conditional: Würde + Infinitive. Back when I was learning German, we were taught never to use the conditional instead of Konjunktiv 2, but nowadays everyone does:
Why would you call that "conditional"? Just because it's formed like the English conditional? It doesn't have a separate grammatical function, it's merely an alternative form for the Konjunktiv II that means exactly the same. A common stylistic recommendation is to use "würde" when the subjunctive form would be the same as the indicative preterite, but it's only stylistic.
Flautist wrote:I find that there is a very big difference in how the subjunctives are presented. Are there 2, 4, 6 or 8 forms?
So, to sum up what we discussed so far: It depends on how you count. The basic undeniable fact about German is that there are Konjunktiv I and II with a full conjugation of separate verbs forms. For all tenses that use a compound form in the indicative, you just use the Konjunktiv I/II of the auxiliary verb (sein/haben/werden), so for example "ich bin gerannt" -> "ich sei gerannt" (Konjunktiv I) / "ich wäre gerannt" (Konjunktiv II). Some people may count this as separate forms of "rennen", but as you can see, there's nothing really new in those.