Indicativ

Indicativ, or indicative mood, is a grammatical category used to express statements of fact, belief, or ordinary questions about real events. It is the default mood in many languages and is employed to present assertions that the speaker regards as true or as likely to be true.

In many languages the indicative is inflected for tense and aspect. Common tenses include present, past, and future, and some languages also feature perfect, imperfect, pluperfect, and other layered forms. The defining property of the indicative is that it marks statements about reality or believed reality, in contrast with moods designed to express doubt, wish, possibility, or commands.

Usage typically covers declarative sentences, negations, and questions. For example, in English the present indicative appears in forms like "The cat sits on the mat," the simple past in "The cat sat on the mat," and the future in "The cat will sit on the mat." Many languages further encode aspects such as ongoing action (progressive) or completed action (perfect) within the indicative system.

Cross-linguistic variation is substantial. Different languages have different sets of tenses, affixes, or auxiliary constructions to convey time and aspect, and some may minimize or merge mood distinctions. The indicative contrasts with other moods commonly found in grammar, such as the subjunctive, used for non-real or hypothetical situations, and the imperative, used for commands.

Etymology traces the term to the Latin indicativus, meaning “showing” or “indicating.” The indicative mood remains central to everyday speech, conveying factual content and asserted reality across languages.