By Subjunctives, Inflections

Thanks for your comment, GG. I find English tremendously fascinating just because of all these exceptions, irregularities and oddities. And because there are so few inflections and verb forms, even educated people sometimes disagree on correct usage in cases that seem very clear to me. (The...

Your sentences are not very good English as they contain grammatical mistakes. If I understand you right, you are asking whether need not + infinitive is a subjunctive. No, it isn't. Need in the present tense can be made negative in two ways:1. He need not go there.2. He doesn't need/have to go...

New2grammar wrote:So you are saying the 'if' usage does not automatically make a sentence subjunctive? Can you give me a couple of examples in different contexts where 'if' is not subjunctive?Certainly, New2grammar:1. I showed him some pictures yesterday. If he liked a picture, he would nod.2. I...

Inchoateknowledge wrote: do we drop the '-s' inflection in conditional mood? NO quod erat demonstrandum Mind you: it's a poem we're addressing, and it owns poetic liscense.

do we drop the '-s' inflection in conditional mood? NO quod erat demonstrandum

She has been suffering from mental disorder since she was born. No. 'post-partum' means after the birth of her children, not her own birth. She has a history of post-natal depression. She has been hospitalised for this but it doesn't necessarily mean many times. She might have only been in...

"Andrea Yates, the Texas mother charged with the murder of her five children, has a documented history of postpartum depression and psychiatric hospitalization, yet the district attorney prosecuting her case recently offered to take a possible death penalty off the table if she would withdraw her...

In those cases where subjunctive inflection is allowed, indicative inflection is allowed too.

Alienvoord wrote:Does English even have a past subjunctive? It was agreed six months ago that the house, come what may, was to be decorated inside and out before the end of June. "was" is identical in form to the simple past. So why do some people call it the past subjunctive?Hi...

"investigates" would be wrong. After certain expressions (require that ..., insist that ..., demand that ..., it is important that ..., etc.), the "s" inflection is not used. It's called the subjunctive. The link Paco gave you will explain it in more detail. CJ