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Kooyeen Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

If I knew what you knew - Subjunctive or Present?

Hi, Emotion: smile

I tried to find out something about this use of the subjunctive tense... but I found nothing!

  1. If I knew what you [knew/know], would I truly want to buy what you [are/were] selling?
  2. If I had known what I [knew/know] today, I wouldn't have...
  3. I wish they would remember what I [am/was] saying.
  4. If I ate what you [are/were] eating, I would probably throw up.
  5. If I ate nothing but the the food you [serve/served] here all day, I'd die.
  6. What If I realized that all the things I [think/thought] [are/were] important [are/were] nothing?
  7. If your mother was still alive, she wouldn't be happy of what you [are/were] doing.


    8. I found nothing on the usage of the subjunctive in subordinate clauses...

    Anyway, I know "I wish I knew where she lived" is ok, and sometimes we can find "I wish I knew where she lives" with the same meaning. But, in the sentences above, which tense can be used and which sounds more natural?

    If you know a book, a website or something that treat these kinds of problems, please let me know.

    Thank you in advance.
  

Top answer

That's all logical. ". "If I had known" indicates past.

— Ant_222

  • That's all logical.
  • ".
  • "If I had known" indicates past.
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4 Answers
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That's all logical.

For the first sentence:
«If I knew what you know [now], would I truly want to buy what you are selling [now]?»

This is about present, which is indicated by "If I knew...".

"If I had known" indicates past.
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That's all logical. <--- if everything was logical I wouldn't be asking this! Emotion: wink

For example,
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in "I wish I could tell my mother I loved Jenny" it seems you don't really love her.
I may be wrong, but I think this one is a different question than the one in your first post in this thread.

Here there's ambiguity.

You can't tell your mother that you love Jenny because your mother will disapprove.
Here I wish I could is I wish I w
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If I knew what you [knew/know], would I truly want to buy what you [are/were] selling?
If I had known what I [knew/know] today, I wouldn't have...
I wish they
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