The paper discusses the linguo-pragmatic analysis of the use of moods in subordinate clauses that depend on the negative form of the verbs of thought penser and croire. The objective of this study is to reveal communicatively conditioned factors that influence the speaker’s use of either the indicative or the subjunctive. Different conceptions of the subjunctive as a mood are examined. General provisions on the use of moods in subordinate clauses that depend on the verbs of thought penser and croire in the negative form are also given. The key methods of the study are linguistic analysis based on a broad semantic and pragmatic context and the method of a linguistic experiment. The sources of practical material are publications of the French media made within the last 5 years. The total number of the studied words is 130,000. 200 studied structures are found within the corpus. The analysis has shown that there are two global factors that influence the speaker’s choice between the indicative and the subjunctive in the examined position: the speaker’s wish to clearly differentiate the localization of the action in time and agreement/disagreement of the speaker with another person’s point of view. It appears that a combination of factors influences the choice in some cases.