Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Want do you think of these combinations of tenses, are they possible? If yes, why?

1) It is possible to buy grape plants at this place if you wanted to start your own vineyard.

2) If you asked an average native English speaker about the subjunctive, he will most likely give you a blank stare.


Many thanks,
Hela

[bud]

Huh? [blank stare]

[river1974]

Hela, I think sentences (1) and (2) are possible according to English grammar. The word "if" in these two sentences is used as the subjunctive, so the verbs in the clauses should be changed from the present tense to the past tense. As an English learner, I just follow the grammatical rule and don't know why it has to work this way.

[helen1]

Hi Hela - let me just say you ask some really fantastic questions.

OK let me have a go at an explanation.

1) It is possible to buy grape plants at this place if you wanted to start your own vineyard.

'if you wanted to start your own vineyard' expresses a situation that does not exist.
The speaker is making a suggestoin - the present tense of 'want' would be used if someone had stated they had a wish to start their own vineyard.
The past tense is used here because the listener has not stated a wish to start their own vineyard - this is a statement of possibility/pure suggestion from the speaker.

[helen1]

Sorry I lost my comments on number 2 - so here they are now.

") 'If you asked an average native English speaker about the subjunctive, he will most likely give you a blank stare.'

I believe this is slighly incorrect - it should read 'he would most likely give you a blank stare.'

Again this is a non-existent situation - and again this is just the speakers' suggestion of a possibility. The use of 'most likely' makes it less 'certain' and therefore we use modal 'would' not 'will'

Hope this makes sense

Helen.

[hela]

Hi Helen,

Thank you for your compliment. I hope that my questions are clear enough to understand, and that they are interesting enough to benefit all the learners of English on this site.

What I understood from your answer is that my first sentence :
"It is possible... if you wanted..." is grammatically correct in the particular circumstances you described,

but my second sentence: "if you asked... he will give..." is not. Am I right?

Is the expression "give a blank stare" common / correct in British English? Bud seems not to know it. Could you tell us more about it?

My last question, if I may, is to ask you if you are a teacher of English or some kind of expert. Because I have a very long list of questions (or rather sentences) about the past perfect for which I'd like to have some clear explanations. When my questions are very long, even though I try to divide them up, nobody wants to answer them. This is why I haven't sent them to you. Shall I have a try?

Thanks again for your precious help, Helen.
Best regards,
Hela

[helen1]

Hi Hela,

Yes you are right - sentence 1 is correct while sentence 2 would only be correct if you change will to would.

'give you a blank stare' - basically conveys that he doesn't have a clue what you're talking about - do you know the look someone gets when you're talking to them and they don't understand what you're talking about (not necessarily that they don't understand your language) - I'm sure everyone's done it and had it done to them!!

I did teach EFL for a while but I'm now at university in my final year of studying BA in English Languge - I wouldn't class myself as an expert but I definitely know more through my course than I did when I was teaching.... I may go back to teaching afterwards but who knows......

Regarding your questions... feel free to post them individually - I can't promise to have an answer, or even to reply quickly as I have assignments and a dissertation to write - but please know I'll do what I can to help.

Take care & keep studying

Helen

[hela]

Thank you Helen for your kind devotion to us, students of English!

All the best,
Hela

[bud]

Nice answers, Helen, and I second your opinion that Hela asks wonderful questions. Often I can't reply because my knowledge of grammar is not that good.

Hela, I was making a joke and I think you missed it. Peculiar to the internet is the placing of statements in square brackets to indicate what the writer is thinking to himself (or doing). So I was saying "Huh?" to you while giving you a blank stare. Your original post was very clear.