By Subjunctives, Modals

MrPedantic wrote: Hello Jussive I would say that the subjunctive is incorrect after in this instance, since "whether" presents one option of two: 1. She phoned to ascertain whether he was dining at the club (or not). MrP Well, I would have thought that the simple fact that she called to...

MrPedantic wrote: Anonymous wrote: 2. I think of it as a past subjunctive; but I wouldn't refer to it as such, because the next question would be "how can I distinguish the past subjunctive from the simple past, if they look the same?" It seems safer to say that the past tense can be used...

Ive read that modals such as ‘would’ and ‘could’ give a ‘subjunctive idea’ and other non-committal descriptions as such, but I don’t understand the rationale behind those reservations. They seem also to apply to the non-past. It seems people don’t wish to call these forms the subjunctive for...

Hello Teachers Surfing online, I came across a bit tough question from an English learner from Japan. The question is:The passage below is from a retold version of "Edith's Book" by Edith Velmans. I thought of turning myself in from time to time. I thought: "If I wanted to, I could go over to...

CalifJim wrote:If a student points to some construction and asks me if it's the subjunctive or not, I can't reply, 'No, it's a monkey!'Now there you are wrong! You are the teacher and can say any dang thing you want! In fact a smart retort like that might go a long way toward making your...

Thanks for your reply, MrP. 1. I would call it an exclamatory conditional. The main clause is left unspoken, but we can usually infer it, e.g. "if only she would contact me, I would be very happy". Ok, it’s a conditional with an unexpressed result but still a ‘conditional’ right? In this case,...

1. 'If only she would contact me'. This sentence uses 'if' but there's only one clause so what type of sentence is this? You wouldn't call it a conditional, would you? 2. The above sentence is about a wish and therefore we don't use 'will'. Also, in other such sentences we use the simple past to...

Pieanne wrote: Yes, the anwser is C. "It's (high) time" takes a subjunctive/modal preterite please correct the name, someone! "It's high time we went" (see Joe Cocker), "it's high time he were in bed", etc... I agree that it's (c) but I'm not sure why. The past subjunctive is used to...

Yes, the anwser is C. "It's (high) time" takes a subjunctive/modal preterite please correct the name, someone! "It's high time we went" (see Joe Cocker), "it's high time he were in bed", etc...

When we talk about a subjunctive construction, I think it is easier to understand it without the 'inserted clause, I would think' becasue that way one can clearly see the cause-and-effect relationship beteween the conditional clause and the main clasue. 1. If someone tells you that you may...