In British English^x, Conditionals^x

I agree with Jim a hundred percent. I am so used to reading English texts from various sources and periods that when I read the sentence, I found nothing unusual about it. I sometimes say myself: "I should think so." This isn't a backshift of any kind, of course, just a case of...

It is a characteristic of British English, and of American English to a lesser extent, and especially in older forms of the language on both sides of the Atlantic, to substitute shall and should for will and would with a first-person subject.Hence, this substitution in mind, the sentence is...

Taka wrote:Bokeh,I would like you to cite what the book actually says.Plus, I wonder what your nationality is.Taka, I am a native British English speaker but that in itself doesn't prove I am right or wrong.Here are a couple of sentences from the book (if you want to read more you will have to...

Only the first is idiomatic American English. The second is more likely to occur in British English. A speaker of BrE may be able to elucidate further. CJ