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VaCcine XO Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

expression 'have to' and subjunctive mood

about subjunctive mood sentence

If he did not have it, it would have to take 3 hours for him to get to school.

In the sentence above, is the expression 'have to' strange to use?

1. I think I saw 'have to' is used for the meaning of 'strong guess', similar to 'must'. For example,

ex) He must be a fool to say so.
ex2) He has to be a fool to say so.

Can we use 'have to' instead of 'must' when we want to express 'strong guess' (I don't know how to put it exactly.) not a meaning of duty or obigation?

2. If the use of 'have to' is ok, how does the sentence sound?
Is it erroneous? Does it sound awkward?

3. Or just tell me what you think about the sentence. Is the sentence OK or NOT OK?

I thank you in advance for your time and kind consideration. Emotion: smile
  

Top answer

VaCcine XO In the sentence above, is the expression 'have to' strange to use? Yes, it shouldn't be there. Just say "it would take 3 hours".

— GPY

  • VaCcine XO In the sentence above, is the expression 'have to' strange to use?
  • Yes, it shouldn't be there.
  • Just say "it would take 3 hours".
  • ) Yes, it can be used to express the speaker's strong belief or assertion.
  • Another example: "That has to be the worst decision ever made".
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7 Answers
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VaCcine XOIn the sentence above, is the expression 'have to' strange to use?
Yes, it shouldn't be there. Just say "it would take 3 hours".
VaCcine XOCan we use 'have to' instead of 'must' when we want to express 'strong guess' (I don't know how to put it exactly.)
Yes, it can be used to express the speaker's strong belief or
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I see no subjunctive mood there.
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Ah really?
He DOES have it. So it does not take 3 hours to get to school.
But IF he does not have it NOW, it will take 3 hours.
So I thought the sentence:
If he did not have it, it would take 3 hours ...
is a subjunctive mood sentence.
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For all verbs except, for some speakers, BE, the form of the past subjunctive is identical to that of the past indicative, and so most writers now see no point in talking about a past subjunctive.
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VaCcine XO I thought the sentence:If he did not have it, it would take 3 hours ... is a subjunctive mood sentence.
No; it is a Conditional II sentence. Some conditional structures do use subjunctive verb forms, like:

If I were you, I would study harder.
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Wow, thank you so much for your answers.

Let me ask you one more question, please.

Let's suppose i want to say:
If he did not have it, it certainly would take 3 hours.
Let's say im really sure it would take 3 hours if he didn't have it.
Then is the sentence :
... it would have to take 3 hours ...
still gramatically and sementically wrong?

Im curio
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VaCcine XOIf he did not have it, it would take 3 hours ... is a subjunctive mood sentence.
I believe that some people do refer to forms like "did" here as past subjunctive. It is a bit confusing, though, since the example normally given for subjunctive with "if" is "if I were" which is presumably contrasted with "if I was", which is presumably not classed as p
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