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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Was
Hi,
"The co-owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, had drawn up a shortlist of potential successors in anticipation of the Israeli's departure at the end of the campaign, regardless of whether demotion was avoided, but must now appoint a manager charged with restoring them to the Premier League." (From The Guardian.)
My question is: does the verb "was" in the 'reported question' "whether demotion was avoided" stand for the "was" expressed in the sequence of tenses or for the 'conditional' "was", sort of the conditional 'were'?
Thank you.
"The co-owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, had drawn up a shortlist of potential successors in anticipation of the Israeli's departure at the end of the campaign, regardless of whether demotion was avoided, but must now appoint a manager charged with restoring them to the Premier League." (From The Guardian.)
My question is: does the verb "was" in the 'reported question' "whether demotion was avoided" stand for the "was" expressed in the sequence of tenses or for the 'conditional' "was", sort of the conditional 'were'?
Thank you.
Top answer
It's actually the passive voice but without further context I can't be certain 'who or what' avoided demotion. It's also not possible to tell if this is conditional or not without more context either. If it were conditional though, the 'was' should be 'were'.
- It's actually the passive voice but without further context I can't be certain 'who or what' avoided demotion.
- It's also not possible to tell if this is conditional or not without more context either.
- If it were conditional though, the 'was' should be 'were'.
- That said, The Guardian isn't exactly a treasure of correct grammar or proper vocabulary!
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2 Answers
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It's actually the passive voice but without further context I can't be certain 'who or what' avoided demotion. It's also not possible to tell if this is conditional or not without more context either. If it were conditional though, the 'was' should be 'were'.
That said, The Guardian isn't exactly a treasure of correct grammar or proper vocabulary!
That said, The Guardian isn't exactly a treasure of correct grammar or proper vocabulary!
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