In Simple past^x, Subjunctives^x

The question here is what attitude, state of mind or intent did the speaker want to convey ? In the given sentence, if you think the speaker meant to express doubt about the success of the negotiation, then the correct tense to use would be the past perfect to indicate an unreal situation...

I think "were" in "If I were you" is a subjunctive mood... It's exactly the same as the simple past, except for "to be" in the 1st and the 3rd person (sing.): "were" instead of "was".

1. Jenny talks as if she knows everything = Jenny talks like a person who knows everything ( but you aren't saying whether Jenny really knows everything or not) I agree. 2. Jenny talks as if she knew everything = Jenny talks like a person who knows everything, but she doesn't really know...

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...

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 for the "remote"...

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 for the "remote" or the "unreal". ...

Hello Jussive 1. Yes, I'd call it a type 2. (Other types are also possible, e.g. "If only I had known!" – type 3.) Although it's true that the sentence "I wish she would contact me, I would be very happy" lacks a conjunction, I'm not sure we can infer that "If only she would contact me, I...

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...

Schoolteacher wrote: We can sometimes use Simple Past to refer to the present and this is called Unreal Past..you know..for wishes.. eg. I wish I were rich!!!( but i'm not)..to wish for something that we wanted to be different in the present but it's not. In this category belongs the " It is...

I 2> He enjoys ........... activities like painting and playing music. a. abstract b.creative c.powerful d.classic I choose (a) I wouldn't... So I choose (b), is it ok, and why? because even if we sometimes speak of "abstract painting", neither painting nor playing music are abstract...