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English 1b3 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
As if it will stop/as if it would stop
He sits on the horn as if it will stop the bus that is bearing down on us. Amazingly, it does.
To express that something is counterfactual, we use the past subjunctive or the past perfect subjunctive.
What if modals are concerned and we want to express that something is counter-factual? Do we shift the modal into the past form and write it like this?
He sits on the horn as if it would stop the bus that is bearing down on us. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
2) Is this in bold subjunctive? (Some don't call constructions with modals the subjunctive...).
3) What use of would is this?
Thanks
To express that something is counterfactual, we use the past subjunctive or the past perfect subjunctive.
What if modals are concerned and we want to express that something is counter-factual? Do we shift the modal into the past form and write it like this?
He sits on the horn as if it would stop the bus that is bearing down on us. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
2) Is this in bold subjunctive? (Some don't call constructions with modals the subjunctive...).
3) What use of would is this?
Thanks
Top answer
He sits on ... as if it will ... [Amazingly, it does.
- He sits on ...
- as if it will ...
- [Amazingly, it does.
- ] He sat on ...
- as if it would ...
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4 Answers
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He sits on ... as if it will ... [Amazingly, it does. / Unfortunately, it doesn't.]
He sat on ... as if it would ... [Amazingly, it did. / Unfortunately, it didn't.]
I don't think I'd call it a subjunctive.
It's would as the future of the past. Honking the horn is in the present or the past in the examples above. The ensuing result is expressed by will or
He sat on ... as if it would ... [Amazingly, it did. / Unfortunately, it didn't.]
I don't think I'd call it a subjunctive.
It's would as the future of the past. Honking the horn is in the present or the past in the examples above. The ensuing result is expressed by will or
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I'm not going to get into the discussion of subjunctive, but I do want to say that "he sits on the horn" sounds very strange to me. How about "he leans on the horn"?
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CalifJimHe sits on ... as if it will ... [Amazingly, it does. / Unfortunately, it doesn't.]
He sat on ... as if it would ... [Amazingly, it did. / Unfortunately, it didn't.]
I don't think I'd call it a subjunctive.
It's would as the future of the past. Honking the horn is in the present or the past in the examples above. The ensuing re
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In this example, I sense that the sequence of tenses is more important than any use of the subjunctive, so I would put sits with will and sat with would regardless of anything hypothetical in the situation.
CJ
CJ
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