Grammar terms

Question

Hi,Is the term "conditional mood" used on EF, properly or improperly?Thanks,  - A.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi Avangi;

I don't know how the term has been used in the past in EF, but we have had loads of questions on conditional constructions.

There are a number of grammatical moods listed here, including conditional.

A-

s

Avangi · Answer

Thanks, A-

s,

I had done a rough search, but it seemed like Wicki was pleading for experts, and many sites switched quickly to other terms using the same qualifier. Then there were a lot which implied the terms in question were used for languages other than English. It wasn't very satisfying.

I myself had not heard it here until today.

Would you personally consider using the term "conditional mood"?

Rgdz, - A.

Edit. I did come across statements that moods in general were used mainly in linguistics.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Hi A;

Since I can't pretend to being a linguist, I eschew abusing their noble terminology. Most often, I use conditional as a noun, following the time-honored English tradition of morphing adjectives to nouns. When it applies, I use subjunctive.

Still, "conditional mood" has a better ring to it than "conditional tense."

A-

s

Avangi · Answer

Perhaps we need to put in a supply of mood-altering pharmaceuticals.  (I didn't say that!) <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/16.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/16.gif' alt='Emotion: zip it!'/>

Cool Breeze · Answer

AlpheccaStarsStill, "conditional mood" has a better ring to it than "conditional tense."

I'm not in the least trying to apply Finnish grammar to English but I'd just like to tell everybody that both terms are widely used here. They don't mean the same thing, though. The conditional, the imperative, the indicative etc. are considered moods. There are two conditionals, the present conditional (I would go) and the perfect conditional (I would have gone). Up to now I thought these terms were used in English, too.

I'm sure I have seen the terms "present conditional" and "perfect conditional" in some English grammar books. Whether these books were written by native speakers is another thing.

CB

PS I'm ready and waiting for any pharmaceuticals Avangi has procured for us![Y] (I think he's the expert!)

Avangi · Answer

Cool BreezePS I'm ready and waiting for any pharmaceuticals Avangi has procured for us! (I think he's the expert!)

NOT TRUE!
Ten years ago Kaiser put me on Prozac. A week later I passed out at work. It turned out to be heat exhaustion, but I blamed it on the Prozac. That was the end of that!

BaldKingOfFrance · Answer

A mood refers to linguistic encoding of modality, that is, linguistic encoding of possibility or necessity. Conditionals, being about what is possible given some premise, are properly a mood.

The subjunctive, a.k.a the conjunctive a.k.a the irrealis, is about what a speaker wishes or wants to be the case, but which isn't actually the case. This too is a mood, as it expresses (unrealized) possibility or necessity.

Tense is linguistic encoding of the time of some event relative to the time that speech takes place. The classic ones are past (event before speech time), present (event at speech time), and future (event following speech time), but there are others.

Mood is typically marked on clauses, while tense is typically marked on verbs.

For this reason, a "conditional tense" makes sense, but it means "some tense which occurs with a conditional mood". The conditional itself is not a tense.

CalifJim · Answer

Cool BreezeThere are two conditionals, the present conditional (I would go) and the perfect conditional (I would have gone).

It works for me! Even as the names of "tenses". These tense-mood structures occur in the Romance languages so, having studied them, "conditional tenses" sounds pretty ordinary to me. I wouldn't bother to call would a present conditional, though, as students might get it confused with the present tense itself -- thinking it's a special kind of present, on a par with, say, the present continuous tense.

I don't think students are made any more proficient by any insight into the idea of "mood", so I don't use the term on this forum unless I'm specifically asked about it, though I certainly have encountered the names of the "moods" thousands of times over the years.

I think CB's terms, quoted above, are more than sufficient for getting across the relevant concepts to students.

CJ

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