Discussion Groups / British English / August 2006

Sorry I correct the spelling error in the topic :-)

Much better than my Italian.

If I had the money...
Had I the money...
If I'd studied more, I'd have passed...

Note agnieszka, ddraganov... this is NOT an English usage at all.

That's a future conditional, it's OK. "If I had been.." places it in the
past.

Paul Burke

L'intronato schrieb:

All of these are non-standard in any variety of English.

No, this sentence is correct because it's not a conditional sentence but
an indirect question. The man said: "Will you be available for full-time
employment?" The would occurs because of the time shift in indirect speech

This is not actually true. There are two subjunctive forms:

1. the present (or first) subjunctive - which is the same as the present
indicative except that the 3rd person singular does not add "s", e.g. "I
suggest that he go to see a lawyer" - in British English the form "...
that he should go ..." is more common. The present (or first)
subjunctive of "to be" is "be", e.g. "I suggest that he be invited"

2. the past (or second) subjunctive - which now has the same form as the
simple past except for "to be", where the form is "were" for all
persons. This is often used in conditional clauses: "If he were here,
..." or "If I were president, ..." Because of the identity of the forms
(other than this one exception) we (teachers of English as a foreign
language) usually don't refer to the subjunctive in this context except
with very advanced students who are comparing English grammar with that
of their own language. Why duplicate (and confuse the students with
useless information)? - after all the forms are identical except for the
one exception, and even there you can always use "was" except in the
phrase "If I were you, ..."

Anyway, most native speakers of English have no idea what you are
talking about when you mention the subjunctive, even if they use it
themselves! ;-)

Regards, Einde O'Callaghan

P.S. Don't worry about the typo in the subject line - typos happen all
the time in Usenet.

In English we would say: "If I had the money, I would buy a car."

This would be: "If I had studied more, I would have passed the exam."

Don't get confused between the two uses of "had". In the first sentence
it is the primary verb meaning to possess. In the second sentence, it is
the auxiliary verb to the past participle of "study".

In British English, we would not use "would" as an auxiliary in the first
part of each sentence, but instead the subjunctive of the actual verb,
as Einde has explained in his posting.

I'm not sure whether this is future tense or not. If it is talking
about a hypothesised future, it would be:

"If I were to be[come] the boss of Chanel, I would ask you to be my testimonial."

If he is talking about a present fictitious scenario, it would be:

"If I were the boss of Chanel, I would ask you to be my testimonal."

If a fictitious scenario:

"If I were limited only to two albums, I would take none."

If a response to an actual limitation:

"If (=since) I am limited only to two albums, I will take none." (Not subjunctive).

"If I were a moderator..."

Interestingly, that example is the only one in your posting that is actually
natural English.

It does indeed, although most native speakers don't realise it, because most
forms are identical to the indicative. English doesn't distinguish between
subjunctive and conditional.

I doubt the subjunctive is taught much at all nowadays. Even in the 1970s, I
learnt more about English grammar in German lessons than in English lessons!

Cheers
Tony

No, it's not 'I would' but 'I had' or more usually, "I'd'.  "if I'd had
the money/studied more, I would have brought a car/passed my exams"

Non, here it's "if I were" (not "if I was")

Not at all, it's in the future so conditional in this case.

It isn't substandard. The above phrase is correct the other examples are
wrong.