Subjunctive II and the conditional mood in complex sentences.

5.5.2.1. In a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of unreal condition subjunctive II is used in the clause of condition and the conditional mood is used in the principal clause.

The factory and the company are owned and run by him alone. He is chairman and managing director, sole shareholder and paymaster. If he went, the entire project would collapse.

I had been receiving invalidity benefit for 10 years when it was renamed incapacity benefit last year. What effect will it have when I reach 65 years of age? Also what would I have received if it remained invalidity benefit?

It would hardly seem justified in a survey like the present one to dwell on a method as abstract as Patterson's, were it not for the supreme importance which this method has now assumed in the analysis of macromolecular structures.

Had he suspected what was in store for her, he would never have asked her to come.

The tenses are used absolutely and need not be the same in both parts of the sentence.

Even in Japan there have been a series of failures – and there would be more if the banks came clean about the true value of their assets. In Britain, there have been two collapses.

You went to the banks and paid ruinous interest, waited hat in hand like a beggar. But if you had come to me, my purse would have been yours. If you had come to me for justice those scum who ruined your daughter would be weeping bitter tears this day. If by some misfortune an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become me enemies and then, believe me, they would fear you.

That's what we fought Hitler for. If Hitler had had things his way, we'd just be slaves now.

The present tense of subjunctive II of a modal verb may be used in any or both parts of this complex sentence. The choice of the modal verb is determined by meaning, by the attitude of the speaker towards the actions expressed in the sentence.

Joe Patroni grinned. "If I were him, I mightfeel the same way.

If mere parsimony couldhave made a man rich, Sir Pitt Crawley mighthave become very wealthy.

If the biochemist couldexplain this – and, incidentally nobody has yet done so – then we would have the key to one of the most important physiological processes for which proteins are responsible.

You have more brains than half the shire; if merit had its reward you oughtto be a duchess.

With reference to director's dealing in their own shares, it would be much appreciated if you wouldadvise me of the name and address of the publication which monitors these transactions.

5.5.2.1.2. Three forms are used in clauses of condition with reference to the future (for details see 5.5.3.4.):

1) the present subjunctive II

I should study the pictures in the gallery, Madam, if I were you.

2) the present subjunctive II of the verb to be and the infinitive of a notional verb.

It has been calculated that there is enough ice above present sea level that, if it wereto melt, the oceans would rise enough to drown every coastal city to a depth of many yards.

3) the present tense of the suppositional mood

There is a good fire in there. Of course, if you should wish to have the fire in the library as well I will give orders for it to be lit." "Oh, no," I said. "The house telephone is also in the morning-room, should you wish to speak to Mrs. Danvers." "Thank you, Frith," I said.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1957