Timeline for Verb in sentence with "take care that" [duplicate]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 16, 2016 at 10:49 | history | closed |
Edwin Ashworth FumbleFingers choster NVZ♦ oerkelens |
Duplicate of "That... be" construction | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 21:12 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Michael Hardy: Taking note of the shambles Americans have made re interpretations of the right to bear arms, I think it's a bad idea to assume precise choice of words unambiguously and permanently fixes "meaning". The bottom line is both context and actual usage make far more difference. I don't deny there's some substance to the distinction you make. But I think that It is important that you be here, for example, could be exactly equivalent to ...that you are here. And no such distinction can be made anyway with ...that you love me, so it's not even universally applicable. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 21:00 | comment | added | Michael Hardy | @FumbleFingers : Certainly. Why not? Some uses of the subjunctive have died out, but not that one. See my answer below. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 20:25 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Michael: Are you seriously saying you would prefer to use the subjunctive? Wow! You really are happily married! (To a corpse, imho, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder! :) | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 19:54 | comment | added | Michael Hardy | @FumbleFingers : No, I wouldn't use that form, and I know many others wouldn't. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 19:53 | answer | added | Michael Hardy | timeline score: 0 | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 16:43 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @FF Hey, I want to visit the States again sometime. If people over there want to pronounce 'Arkansas' (the river) two different ways, that's their prerogative. There are three ways of pronouncing 'Shrewsbury'. I think the Americans are only as idiosyncratic as we Brits are. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 16:01 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Edwin: Is AmE really that "wedded to the subjunctive"? Surely if they were writing that clause today it would be ...will [must?] ensure that the laws are faithfully executed. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 15:41 | review | Close votes | |||
| Aug 16, 2016 at 10:49 | |||||
| Aug 15, 2016 at 15:20 | comment | added | BillJ | Irrealis is instanced solely by "were". Your first example is subjunctive; replacing "be" with "are" gives a declarative clause. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 15:18 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | Related:Why is American English so wedded to the subjunctive. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 15:12 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | @Max Williams There have been other discussions here about the option of using the indicative rather than an irrealis mood. I'd certainly use 'are' here, but I'm not sure that 'quite archaic' fits, and I'm fairly sure you can expect some flak. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 14:55 | comment | added | Max Williams | "are" would be more usual, nowadays. It's an old document and that usage of "be" is quite archaic now. | |
| Aug 15, 2016 at 14:47 | history | asked | user2268997 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |