Were any to have fallen

Question

The director of national intelligence is in the process of reviewing the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago to see what possible damage they could do to national security were any to have fallen into the wrong hands.

From The Guardian.

Is "were" a subjunctive in the clause were any to have fallen into the wrong hand?

Can the clause be paraphrased as should any have fallen into the wrong hand?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

anonymousIs "were" a subjunctive in the clause were any to have fallen into the wrong hand?

Yes.

anonymousCan the clause be paraphrased as should any have fallen into the wrong hand?

Yes.

The sentence is ungrammatical. The tenses are inconsistent, and it doesn't make sense. I don't know what he was trying to say, but it should be "The director of national intelligence is in the process of reviewing the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago to see what possible damage they could have done to national security if any had fallen into the wrong hands." Or "The director of national intelligence is in the process of reviewing the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago to see what possible damage they can do to national security if any have fallen into the wrong hands." Or "The director of national intelligence is in the process of reviewing the documents retrieved from Mar-a-Lago to see what possible damage they could do to national security if any fell into the wrong hands." There are probably other possible variants.

CalifJim · Answer

anonymousIs "were" a subjunctive in the clause were any to have fallen into the wrong hand?

Yes. Past subjunctive, and by the way, 'were' is the only past subjunctive form in English.

anonymousCan the clause be paraphrased as should any have fallen into the wrong hands?

Yes, but before that, 'could do' should be 'could have done'.

See the previous reply for other good options.

CJ

Were any to have fallen

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