Unreal tenses use the past tense for present situations and the past perfect for past situations. For example: "I would rather we had never met" =past perfect for past time "I would rather you smoked outside." =

That doesn't mean there aren't many, many other unnamed kinds. A very common one is the one you see here, where both clauses are in the past tense (not subjunctive). This pattern is used to talk about a relationship between things that

The "if" subjunctive variety was not the main issue here. At this juncture, we are not particularly concerned about the "if" conditionals, or degree of possibility and certainty. Perhaps that's another topic. The heavy

This was during the Second World War. My question is on the words 'when millions would have done anything to get out, one remarkable ... Is the above fine? Yes. Is this subjunctive? No. Maybe it is simple past tense. No. It's a modal

I just want to point out the word "could" is indicative of the subjunctive mood Modal verbs don't have tenses and moods in the way that other verbs do. could certainly acts like a past subjunctive in If I could help you, I would.

Why should we use 'would' ,'could' in the subjunctive mood and in the future tense? would and could , along with several other verbs, are called modal verbs. The modal verbs don't really have tenses, so you can't really use

Your explanation is nearly correct, CJ..however, this is the breakdown: would = subjunctive modal have had to = perfect tense of the modal replacement(or "semi-modal", if you prefer), " have to " have been eating= perfect

Yet if she could have seen me there, she would have been a little puzzled. What verb form is "could have seen" in this sentence? Personally, I would just call it a "modal perfect" (with could ). I use that term for any modal

Could in the main clause is probably a conditional mood, isn't it? Yes. But could in the following sentence is a subjunctive, isn't it? Не would l ent lend you the book if you could call for it . It's in a subjunctive context, but I

I found a website that could help you. I'll quote part of it for you: "May/might is an example of a modal auxiliary verb. The distinction between may and might has to do with the tense (present, past etc.) and/ or mood (indicative/