By Verbs, Subjunctives

Re: What's the rule(s) for I was vs I were?

was or were In the ordinary past tense of the verb to be, was is the first and third person singular: I was late and were is the second person singular and the plural: You were right. It is not acceptable in standard English to use were for the first and third person singular: I were late,...

Re: Native-speaker/native language

There's some truth in that article. My parents, for instance, used to speak in Sardinian (not a dialect, but recognised as an endangered language by the UNESCO) when talking to each other or to their relatives, but they would only speak Italian with my brother and me. I grew up monolingual,...

Re: If he was lucky he'd find a cab there...

Hi Jackson, "He" is in some location, possibly unable to find transportation. Actually, "frequency" in this context is usually applied to busses. One usually calls by telephone for a taxi cab, unless one is in the city at a busy time, and can "hail" a passing cab...

Re: Had he lived

Hello Rotter,I would call the verb in the if-clause of your second sentence ("If he were...") subjunctive too. It would probably be more usual to say "he would be.." in the main clause.Best wishes,MrP

Re: Has/have

Hi,"have" is the "prescriptively correct" one, because it actually and grammatically refers to "languages".Now, the fact is that a lot of native speakers use the singular in those kinds of structures, because they make the verb agree with what comes before "one...

Re: grammar about the verb "to suggest"

Ray is right about the tenses. A more normal context would be: He suggests that she (should) be the one who does it. should be or be are subjunctives implying an obligation ("ought to") and cannot be replaced by the verbs you suggested. This is the so-called putative should. Do some...

Re: "should" in subordinate clauses

George Curme doesn't seem to agree with Palmer: --The past subjunctive is often used instead of the present indicative since the abstract principle is felt as more important than the concrete fact: I regard it as the saddest of things that a man should be allowed to bring up his son in...

Re: case of subjunctive in the 'if' clause?

It's not subjunctive. It's the modal use of need. Modal need can occur in non-assertive contexts. Modals never take the s in the first person singular of the present tense the way non-modal verbs do. In that way they resemble subjunctive forms, which are also missing the s. The...

number agreement of verbs

Hi, I just got in trouble (again.) In exclamations and imperatives, is the reason for the wierd agreement situation that they are considered subjunctive, or that the verb (in the following sentence) is actually "hear," and "bark" is not really a verb? Hear the dog bark! ...

Re: subjunctive and 2nd conditional

, (then) ... would have ... UNREAL, COUNTERFACTUAL *The past is sometimes called the past subjunctive in this position. Only the verb to be has a special form (were in all persons and numbers) in this position.Other combinations of tenses in these kinds of if patterns have no...