Present subjunctive

Question

Would it be a gross blunder if I  said: " It is necessary that they are well trained" (instead of  "be" ) ???

Olive bee · Accepted Answer

By the way, I have just found the article "Is it necessary that tilaks are made of the traditional materials or may they be improvised?"

AlpheccaStars · Answer

olive bee
Would it be a gross blunder if I said: " It is necessary that they are well trained" (instead of "be" ) ???

No. They are equally valid and have different meanings.

BillJ · Answer

olive bee
Would it be a gross blunder if I said: " It is necessary that they are well trained" (instead of "be" ) ??? I think that when I put "be', I also can put "should be". But what about the 2-nd variant???

[1] It is necessary that they are well-trained.

[2] It is necessary that they be well-trained.

[3] It is necessary that they should be well-trained.

These are all various forms of the 'mandative' construction.

[1] is called the covert mandative, [2] the subjunctive mandative and [3] the should mandative.

All three have a similar meaning to they must be well-trained.

Present subjunctive

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