In Subjunctives^x, Clauses^x

Hello All, I would be most grateful if anyone could clarify a point of confusion regarding the two sentences below. I have exhausted the print and electronic resources available to me without finding a fully satisfactory answer. Sentence One: "I thought that you were my friend." The...

Hello Glee, welcome to EF. Either the present or the past may be appropriate in these sentences. There is no way to judge without reading the context. Generally, whichever tense the narration is cast in, it should be consistent. Here, is seems that the narrator is speaking in his/her...

Should be "were going to vomit." "If" clauses take the verb were b/c it is the subjunctive mood What's 'b/c'? What do you mean? In conditionals it's 'if' clauses and they can take lots of thing except for 'were'

Should be "were going to vomit." "If" clauses take the verb were b/c it is the subjunctive mood.

Hello What is queer to me about the use of the subjunctive mood are rules of "time one-step advanced than tense" and "time-freedom from the main clause tense" 1. time one-step advanced than tense Subjunctive's semantic time is one-step advanced than the syntactic tense. They are...

Hello MrP 1) Isn't it more formal or grammatical to use subjunctive mood in 'as if' clauses? I mean except for some exceptional sentences that you previously pointed out. 2) I feel as if I were young -- past sunjunctive, right? I feel as if I was young -- this one, as I've made out, is...

Hello Jim Thank you for your kind comments. To me every modal is difficult to grasp its exact meanings. As for 'will'/'would', I think they are also used as 'indicative' and 'subjunctive'. (1) neutral future (be about to: be destined to) My guess will be wrong. My guess would be...

Hello Maverick A subjunctive mood in a reported subordinate clause is (usually) independent in tense from the main clause. (1-D) She said;"I couldn't imagine my life without him" (1-R) She told me that she couldn't imagine her life without him" (2-D) She said;"I couldn't have imagined...

Hello Maverick When we use this kind of as-if, the if-clause is subjunctive: 1. 'I feel as if I were floating into space.' The indicative use is the one I've called 'type 1', in the as-if thread in the Linguistics section. The subjunctive use is the one I've called 'type 2'. The...

You're welcome, Mav! It occurs to me that there's another possible sentence for the husband here: 'You were looking at me as if I'd said something stupid!' I would agree with the implications of Paco's earlier comment about 'pedagogic' contexts, by the way. Situations where you could...