In Subjunctives^x, Clauses^x

Hellow Zewu I'm an English learner from Japan. I am afraid I don't know much about English enough to answer such questions as those you are asking. But allow me to put my two cents worth. First of all, let me define some grammatical terms. In English, people usually say 'subjunctive mood'...

Hello Davkett I'm envisaging a conversation like this: "Do you have any tissues?" "There should be some in the glove compartment." "Are they clean?" "Of course they're clean!" "Are you sure?" "Well, no, I'm not 'sure'. But if they weren't¹ clean, they'd be in that bijou...

SpoonfedBaby wrote: would have for had . In spoken English, there is a growing tendency to use would have in place of the subjunctive had in contrary-to-fact clauses, such as If she would have (instead of if she had ) only listened to me, this would never have happened. But this...

The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996: subjunctive after wish . Yet another traditional rule requires you to use were rather than was in a contrary-to-fact statement that follows the verb wish: I wish I were...

OED explains 'albeit' like this. albeit, conj. The sun, albeit from a lowly altitude, shone out in full brightness. paco

Anonymous wrote: Hello. I came across a couple of sites, and I was wondering if you could verify the authenticity of their contents. http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/IF8.cfm http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/mixedconditional.html The pages look ok. The first site should mention...

Both are correct and common sentences of advisement ('urged'). Both are passive voice in the dependent clause. The first uses subjunctive, the second uses the 'should' alternative to subjunctive, which is favoured, I believe, in BrE.

I can only add a little toward the answers to your questions. In general the modal auxiliaries are used to express not statements of fact but actions or events that exist only as conceptions of the mind -- possibilities, potentialities, necessities, wishes, whatever may or may not...

Be careful with cross-language discussions of the subjunctive! Not all languages use the subjunctive in the same circumstances. Some of the English translations are meant to be suggestive and helpful in a general way - not models necessarily of good or natural English grammar. The more...

Hello Jim CalifJim wrote: Do we mean the difference between if that truly means if and if that means since or given that ? Hypothetical if and indicative if , respectively? That's a useful distinction. Moreover, #1 above could (a little stiffly) take a present subjunctive in the IF...