Why were
The grammar book that I'm studying nowadays has a sentence which really confused me;
"Objects without life are often personified, that is, spoken of as if they were living being."
Why is it "they were" Why not "they are"?
Top answer
" The underlined part is an adverbial clause of manner (in traditional grammar). The construction is either in the indicative mood or the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive forms indicate that the speaker is more doubtful about their statement.
- " The underlined part is an adverbial clause of manner (in traditional grammar).
- The construction is either in the indicative mood or the subjunctive mood.
- The subjunctive forms indicate that the speaker is more doubtful about their statement.
- For example: Indicative: He looks as if he is ill.
- Subjunctive: He looks as if he were ill.
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sundarnaz"Objects without life are often personified, that is, spoken of as if they were living being."
The underlined part is an adverbial clause of manner (in traditional grammar). The construction is either in the indicative mood or the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive forms indicate that the speaker is more doubtful about their statement.
0Objects without life are often personified, that is, spoken of as if they were living beings.
This were is sometimes aptly called a 'modal preterite'. But it has nothing to do with past time; rather, the preterite expresses a counterfactual meaning, in this case a high degree of modal remoteness since clearly the objects could not possibly be living beings.
0
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