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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
To hear him speak English, you would think he were an American
Dear native English speakers,
(a) To hear him speak English, you would think he were an American.
Would the sentence above be used ?
How about these?
(b) If you heard him speak English, you would think he were an American.
(c) If you had heard him speak English, you would think he were an American.
(d) If you were to hear him speak English, you would think he were an American.
Hirashin
(a) To hear him speak English, you would think he were an American.
Would the sentence above be used ?
How about these?
(b) If you heard him speak English, you would think he were an American.
(c) If you had heard him speak English, you would think he were an American.
(d) If you were to hear him speak English, you would think he were an American.
Hirashin
Top answer
Would the sentence above be used ? That is interesting. Although the hypothetical conditional idea makes it seem that 'were' is appropriate, I think it's not.
- Would the sentence above be used ?
- That is interesting.
- Although the hypothetical conditional idea makes it seem that 'were' is appropriate, I think it's not.
- Here the original thought (albeit hypothetical) is "He is an American".
- When this is reported, it is backshifted to he was an American.
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5 Answers
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Anonymous(a) To hear him speak English, you would think he were an American.Would the sentence above be used ?That is interesting.
Although the hypothetical conditional idea makes it seem that 'were' is appropriate, I think it's not. Here the original thought (albeit hypothetical) is "He is an American". When this is reported, it is backshifted to
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(a) To hear him speak English, you would think he is an American.
In every subsequent sentence, I would use "is."
I would not back-shift because a person's birthplace is something that cannot change.
The subjunctive is used in the IF-clause for a hypothetical (but impossible) statement:
If he were an American, he would not be able to speak with such a native c
In every subsequent sentence, I would use "is."
I would not back-shift because a person's birthplace is something that cannot change.
The subjunctive is used in the IF-clause for a hypothetical (but impossible) statement:
If he were an American, he would not be able to speak with such a native c
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AlpheccaStarsI would not back-shift because a person's birthplace is something that cannot change.A person's birthplace is something that cannot Change, but backshifting is possible:
Peter:"Are you American?"
Peter asked me if I was/am American.
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AnonymousTo hear him speak English ...For me, all of your example sentences are "hypercorrect" with "were". If I were saying those sentences, I'd use "was".
CJ
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All of the sentences are correct, and "were" is fine because this is a hypothetical situation. In fact, he is NOT an American, nor have you heard him speak English. The point is that his accent is so perfect that he would fool you into believing that he is American. Of course, in modern American English, many people have switched to using "was" in all such situations, so that would also be fin
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