Re: Verbal distinctions

Its partly my fault in the first place because as an example I gave him
"I wish/want that he had lived" I think... which is not a perfect
example, and "I wish that he had been alive" conveys what I was trying
to say much better. :) The wish/want thing came from the assumption (I
don't know where it came from, I might have just conjured it from thin
air) that the things are the same in his conlang. So its all my fault
you see. ;)
 Latin and Romance tenses (and moods and aspects) can be a nightmare...
how common is a subjunctive-like mood in non IE languages? For that
matter, is the subjunctive mood common in other non-romance IE languages
since English has it? I can't remember from the little German I was
taught at school whether German has a subjunctive or not... I believe
welsh has, so perhaps the other celtic langs have it... I'm having
difficulty deciding if I would say "I wish he was alive" or "I wish he
were alive"... I read a lot, all kinds of books, so I know when to use
the subjunctive better than most people, but generally I use it more in
writing and speaking when I'm trying to sound formal.. I think I'd
probably say "I wish he was alive" in normal conversation.
 BTW... Surely, if 90% of americans say "I wish he was alive" then that
has a greater claim to being "correct" American english than "I wish he
were alive"... especially since a significant portion of that 90% would
probably say the version with the subjuctive was incorrect if you were
to ask them. I suspect that in the latin of the common people tenses
that latin grammer books would say are wrong were used, just as the
speech of english people differs from how the grammar books say perfect
english should be.... although I doubt they would have used the
indicative instead of the subjunctive mood or vice versa since the
difference is very important in latin.

Reply