The article is devoted to the category of mood of the English verb. This category in the English language is considered taking into account the research available in foreign and domestic linguistic science. The work takes into account the opinions of Henry Sweet, M. Dychben, H. Whitehall, V. Plotkin, F. Palmer, and others. Some of these researchers put forward the semantic approach in the first place, others - the form. There is also a kind of “compromise” approach (B.A. Ilyish). The position of the authors of the article is based on the need to distinguish mood and modality, take into account the unity of form and content, and study the current state of the mood system in the English language, in which the historical approach, taking into account analogies with Latin, Greek and even Old English, is not fundamental.The theory of inclination put forward by L.S. Barkhudarov seems logical and successful. Along with the main moods, some attention is paid to the so-called “secondary” moods in the work.