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Ant_222 Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
"If chance it was" and "if hope it be"
Hello all,
Consider these sentences:
1. «There lies our hope, if hope it be.»
2. «...and that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange chance, if chance it was.»
As I understand them, the ending clauses differ only in time, which I thought should be expressed by the corresponding difference in tense, but, to my surprize, not only in tense the differ...
In the first sentence it is a subjunctive, and in the second one it is not. Could you please explain to me this... how to call it... irregularity, if irregularity it be?
Anton
Consider these sentences:
1. «There lies our hope, if hope it be.»
2. «...and that was in the very year of the finding of this Ring: a strange chance, if chance it was.»
As I understand them, the ending clauses differ only in time, which I thought should be expressed by the corresponding difference in tense, but, to my surprize, not only in tense the differ...
In the first sentence it is a subjunctive, and in the second one it is not. Could you please explain to me this... how to call it... irregularity, if irregularity it be?
Anton
Top answer
» Modern English no longer uses the present subjunctive after if . You will find it, however, in older usage, and in modern works that attempt to create the atmosphere of by-gone times, and perhaps in sayings and proverbs which have retained their old forms in spite of changes in the rest of the language. Modern English: ...
- » Modern English no longer uses the present subjunctive after if .
- You will find it, however, in older usage, and in modern works that attempt to create the atmosphere of by-gone times, and perhaps in sayings and proverbs which have retained their old forms in spite of changes in the rest of the language.
- Modern English: ...
- if hope it is or ...
- if it is hope .
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3 Answers
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Ant_222«There lies our hope, if hope it be.»Modern English no longer uses the present subjunctive after if. You will find it, however, in older usage, and in modern works that attempt to create the atmosphere of by-gone times, and perhaps in sayings and proverbs which have retained their old forms in spite of changes in the rest of the language. Mod
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CalifJim It was a strange chance. Or maybe chance played no part in it at all.
I had understood the meaning, but was confused by the old-fashioned "if hope it be", which is what I had mistakengly considered to be analogical to "if chance it was"...
«If there's any hope, then it lies in Mordor.» — quite different from «It was a strange cha
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Tolkein did take a lot of poetic license in his novels, using older language forms and vocabulary and poetic meter.
Anyway, in line 1, the subjenctive shows the great uncertainty that hope even exists for the quest to succeed. The outcome is by no means certain. The sentiment is very dark, foreboding, and pessimistic.
In line 2, the author is recalling past events. In using the indicat
Anyway, in line 1, the subjenctive shows the great uncertainty that hope even exists for the quest to succeed. The outcome is by no means certain. The sentiment is very dark, foreboding, and pessimistic.
In line 2, the author is recalling past events. In using the indicat
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