In Subjunctives^x, Clauses^x

Hello Paco Yes, I think you're right about tenses in relation to the if-clause/main clause. Also about the confusion – a native speaker complained to me quite recently about the fact that people say 'if I were you', instead of 'if I was you' – he couldn't understand how it could be grammatical...

Hello Paco I do have one or two doubts about Fowler's comments about 'indicative as-if'. If 'as if' can only take the subjunctive, for instance, I'm not sure how we can explain this kind of usage, which was presumably already common in Fowler's time: 1. It's not as if I'm made of money! ...

Hello again Paco When you say 'If the unreality is concurrent with the main clause event, use past subjunctive...' etc., are you taking 'main clause' to mean the clause before the 'as if' statement, or the ellipsis? (I just want to check I'm not answering the wrong question again!) MrP

Hello Mr P You (and Marv have) talked a lot about ! When I was in school, teachers taught us to use with a statement in subjunctive mood. Indeed Fowler wrote so in his "The King's English" a century ago, and still now OED seems to defy any use of . But language changes with time and so the...

Hello Mav88 Sounds you are agonized by clauses. In English for pedagogic use, is used only to introduce an adverbial clause in which speaker states some 'unreality' that he/she can suppose/imagine. Because a statement in an clause is an unreal one, the statement should be expressed by...

Hello Mr P While reading past postings in this thread I came across a question given by Jack 112 . Which one is correct. 1. I guess I would need another engine if I wanted to try and see if my engine is the problem or not? 2. I guess I would need another engine if I wanted to try and see...

Hello Mr P Thank for your confirming my knowledge. So the rule is; When we say any unreality by using clauses: (1) If the unreality is concurrent with the main clause event, use past subjunctive. (2) If the unreality is prior to the main clause event, use past perfect subjunctive. I...

It's neither to ask something nor to argue against anybody. It's just to summarize what I was taught in school about modals. English modals can be sorted into three groups by their tense bearingness and senses. stating facts (semantically tense bearing) will be able to/can/could ...

Hello people I don't like to talk much about the subjunctive stuffs because it sounds difficult to find agreement between 'prescriptivists' and 'descriptivists'. (But I would like to say that, if I were a young ESL student, I certainly would choose prescriptivists as my English teachers...

Another alternative would be to use a subjunctive in the 'if' clause, and 'could' in the main clause: 'If you or your company were interested in these products, I could send you a brochure, or even some samples.' MrP