"would insist that he first try making...." [closed]

I came across this sentence: "The committee would insist that he first try making his crews more efficient."

Why is it "he first try"? It sounds fine, but grammatically, it should be "he first TRIES".

Could someone please explain?

Thanks!

He first tries making...

This is absolutely correct in an independent clause referring to the present. However, in this particular sentence, it appears in a dependent clause that indicates a demand.

In this context, the simple present tense conjugation does not apply because the action isn't actually being done in the present. That's where the subjunctive mood comes in: it is applied to conditional or imaginary situations that are not (yet) true. And in this sentence, the subjunctive form of the verb would simply be "try".

Here's a fantastic and detailed explanation of the subjunctive mood: https://grammarist.com/grammar/subjunctive-mood/