[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
Learn English and meet people on the world’s largest EFL social network

What does he saying?

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » ESL General English Grammar Questions

We have partnered with TradePub to bring you free industry magazines and resources - no coupons or credit cards required!

Visit: englishforums.tradepub.com


Share this topic:
This question is Not Answered
Latest post Thu, Jul 19 2007 10:45 AM by Cool Breeze. 1 replies.
Suggest an answer | | |
Believer  +  393781 Thu, 19 Jul 07 02:02 AM

Hi,

Marius long ago (as it seems) quoted this to help me understand what a subjunctive mood is. Let me rewrite the quoted part and a part in it that needs some elaboration from you. I think he did say it (the book by the author) might not be easy to read.

_________

A past ense form in this category often conveys the idea of unreality:

I wish I were dead

or here [in the US] in colloquial speech with the past subjunctive form was, after the analogy of other past subjunctives which all have the same form as the past indicative, the reference to the present or the future alone distinguishing the subjunctive from the indicative:

I wish it was tomorrow!

I wish I had  wings!

They afterwards wished they had arrested him.

 

G. Curme, A Grammar of the English Language, vol. II, p. 402   

What does he mean by "the reference to the present or the future alone distinguishing the subjunctive trom the indicative'?
Believer
Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006
Contributing Member 1,969
, ,
Cool Breeze  +  393937 Thu, 19 Jul 07 10:45 AM
Hi Believer

Curme means that the word tomorrow is enough to tell anyone with some common sense the fact that was can't be an indicative (= express a real situation). If a person says I wish it was tomorrow!, the current day can't be tomorrow. If it were, there would be no need to wish for it to be tomorrow.

In pretty much the same way, no person has wings, that's a scientific fact. So even though English lacks lots of grammatical forms, common sense tells us that had must be a subjunctive and it can't express a real situation.

Were is the only remaining subjunctive verb form in English and it seems to be fighting a losing battle for existence.

Cheers
CB
EDIT: By the way: What does he say? / What is he saying?
Cool Breeze
Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006
Senior Member 3,979
"I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991
,
Welcome to Englishforums.com, the world's largest EFL / TEFL social network.

Places to start

Browse Englishforums

© MediaCet Ltd. 2009, v5.0.3616.28671. All content posted by our users is a contribution to the public domain, this does not include imported usenet posts.*
For web related enquires please contact us on webmaster@mediacet.com, status updates are available at status.mediacet.com.
*Usenet post removal: Use 'X-No-Archive'. You may not have understood that your posts would end up in the public domain. Please send proof of the poster's email, we will remove immediately.