by Alan Townend16. Subjunctive or «Wishful thinking»
What on earth is the «Subjunctive»? In many languages all the verb
endings change and you have to learn them as if you are using a
completely different tense. Now in English you'll be pleased to know
that we've simplified it to such an extent that it has almost
disappeared.
Take the Present Subjunctive. You only really notice it in the 3rd
person singular and it is used in expressions of wishing, hoping and
praying. So we say «Long live the Queen«! which means in effect
that we wish that the Queen will live a long time and the word
«live», technically is the 3rd person singular of the Present
Subjunctive and has no «s». But if I say «I hope you live to be 100
years old», that is the 2nd person singular of the Present Subjunctive
but it is exactly the same in appearance as the 2nd person singular
of the Present Simple. So, who says English is difficult!
Then again you'd hardly notice the Past Subjunctive because it's the
same in form as the Past Simple and you find it most often in
conditional sentences like this: «If I won the lottery, I'd buy a big
house.» «Won» is technically here the Past Subjunctive but surprise,
surprise, it's the same as the Past Simple — wonderful. The only
time you can spot it is in the verb «be» in expressions like: «If I
were you ...»
But today people are beginning to say as well: «If I was you» There
is also occasional use of the Present Subjunctive of the verb «be»
and the word is «be» in a sentence like «If this be true.» but again
you're more likely to hear/read: «If this is true.» As I say we like to
keep things simple. Another example of the Past Subjunctive is in
expressions like: «It's high time we left.« which means in effect:
«The time has come when we should leave.»
Incidentally you can show off that you know the subjunctive and also
use a very convenient expression when you want to leave someone's
house because either you're bored or you simply want to go home.
Everyone will be so impressed with your knowledge of idiomatic
English, that they can't possibly be offended. So that's the
subjunctive in a nutshell. What I say is: «Long live English!»
Now I want you to read a little story I wrote and I would like you to
try and find as many examples of the subjunctive as you can:
«Wishful Thinking»
Heaven help him, I thought when I saw the news item in my local
paper that a young man in the area had won millions on the national
lottery. It wasn't envy. I honestly felt sorry for him. To win
thousands would be fine, but millions could be too much to handle. If
need be, I supposed he could give it all way but then that would
probably be worse than never having won the money in the first
place. If only something like that were to happen to me, I said to