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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Never ordered vs. would never order

You could order "a cup of tea". You never ordered "a tea".

I noticed 'ordered' was the tense used by a native speaker as she explained her answer to my question in another thread here.

1. Why did she use the simple past tense?
2. Is this rather a hypothetical (subjunctive) form?
3. If it was me, I would write "You would never order a tea". Which do you think is better?

Please advise. Thank you.
  

Top answer

1. -- It would be better if you linked us to the thread instead of taking it out of context. As it stands, I see nothing wrong with ordering 'a tea'-- I do it all the time-- but the past tense is the writer's choice, since that is not the topic of the thread.

— Mister Micawber

  • 1.
  • -- It would be better if you linked us to the thread instead of taking it out of context.
  • As it stands, I see nothing wrong with ordering 'a tea'-- I do it all the time-- but the past tense is the writer's choice, since that is not the topic of the thread.
  • 2.
  • -- No, it is simple past.
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2 Answers
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1. Why did she use the simple past tense?-- It would be better if you linked us to the thread instead of taking it out of context. As it stands, I see nothing wrong with ordering 'a tea'-- I do it all the time-- but the past tense is the writer's choice, since that is not the topic of the thread.

2. Is this rather a hypothetical (subjunctive) form?-- No, it is simple past.
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Hi Mister Micawber,

Thank you for your answers to my questions. I see the past tense 'ordered' is OK and 'a tea' is indeed correct.

Anyway, here is the link , I was talking about.
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