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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Subjunctive usage

I had a sentence "Political compassion for a suffering nation or state provides another level that needs to be taken into account": Should "needs" be the subjunctive "need"? I can't seem to get any answer anywhere. My instinct goes with "need", but someone pointed out to me that "needs" is OK as is. "that needs to be taken into account" is not a clause in itself, just something which is modifying "another level" (by the way, what such a modifier group of words is called, please?), but still I somehow go with "need". Please help.
  

Top answer

Hi, I had a sentence "Political compassion for a suffering nation or state provides another level that needs to be taken into account": Should "needs" be the subjunctive "need"? I can't seem to get any answer anywhere. My instinct goes with "need", but someone pointed out to me that "needs" is OK as is.

— Clive

  • Hi, I had a sentence "Political compassion for a suffering nation or state provides another level that needs to be taken into account": Should "needs" be the subjunctive "need"?
  • I can't seem to get any answer anywhere.
  • My instinct goes with "need", but someone pointed out to me that "needs" is OK as is.
  • ), but still I somehow go with "need".
  • 'That needs to be taken into account' is a subordinate adjectival clause, describing 'level'.
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4 Answers
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Hi,
I had a sentence "Political compassion for a suffering nation or state provides another level that needs to be taken into account": Should "needs" be the subjunctive "need"? I can't seem to get any answer anywhere. My instinct goes with "need", but someone pointed out to me that "needs" is OK as is. "that needs to be taken into account" is not a clause in itself, just something which is m
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I can't see the need for a subjunctive either. If you want to convey some doubtfulness about the needfulness, you could say "...that may need..."

MrP
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Thanks a lot for all your replies, so fast, so helpful.
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Anonymous"that needs to be taken into account" is not a clause in itself, just something which is modifying "another level" (by the way, what such a modifier group of words is called, please?)
... that needs to be taken into account is a relative clause.
CB
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