Re: Help!
| From: | Joe <joe@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, May 24, 2003, 20:54 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Garth Wallace" <gwalla@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 9:46 PM
Subject: Re: Help!
> Markus Miekk-oja wrote:
> >
> > * IIRC "would" is related to "will" - its subjunctive form.
>
> I think "would" is actually the past tense of "will", just as "could" is
> the past tense of "can" and "might" is the past of "may". F. R. Palmer
> calls it the "modal-past".
>
But in the phrase "would that it were not so!", it is a subjunctive.
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