Re: The phrase 'I'd like...'

Deplorable ? Sounds rather logical, after all.

I have a Portuguese pal, speaking French like a native, who refuses categorally
to say "Si j'étais... je ferais". He decided once for all that he would say
"Si je serais", because he finds it much more satisfying (conditional being the
mode of the condition) (I think that in Portuguese it's something like "se eu
fosse" = subjunctive).

Note that in esperanto, the same applies (I'm not trying to sell any esperanto method, I swear):
Se mi estus sana, mi estus felicxa = If I was healthy, I would be happy.

Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...> wrote:

Well, this awful and deplorable phenomenon doesn't happen only in Spanish.
In French, the indicative imperfect after "si" (use where Spanish would use
the subjunctive imperfect) is sometimes replaced by the conditional, which
really grates on my ears too. It's not even a dialectical phenomenon, just
something like a fashion trend, which annoys me even more.

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang.


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