A. Hamilton
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Don't feel bad....I got 5 too. The thing that tripped me up was that I kept second guessing myself. I literally said, well I would use this so it must be this other one. I was actually pretty happy when I found out that my instincts, in all but one case, were correct. Next time I'm going to have a little more faith in myself and not change my answers The one I was really off on was the - were was is - question. I thought the answer was, was.P.H.Delarran said:
rekirts said:My instincts were correct, too, but I went against them on the BAD/BADLY question and got that one wrong. Grrrr.
"He acts as if he were the coolest guy in school."
.. Were is called for in this sentence because it describes something that’s untrue (he’s clearly not the coolest guy in school). This is an example of the subjunctive mood, which is used to express doubts, wishes, possibilities, or untruths.
"Was" isn't subjunctive. Encarta is right.Mac H. said:...According the reference, "He acts as if it is not hot" is wrong - it should be "He acts as if it were not hot." ????"He acts as if he were the coolest guy in school."
.. Were is called for in this sentence because it describes something that’s untrue (he’s clearly not the coolest guy in school). This is an example of the subjunctive mood, which is used to express doubts, wishes, possibilities, or untruths.
OK - I can live with that. But if you shortened it, it would seem to say that "He acts as if it isn't hot" is wrong, but "He acts as if it weren't hot" is correct ? Encarta doesn't seem to recognise 'was' as subjunctive, so we can't even simplify it to "He acts is if it wasn't hot".
Which is correct: "He acts as if killing isn't wrong" or "He acts as if killing weren't wrong"?
reph said:This is an example of the subjunctive mood, which is used to express doubts, wishes, possibilities, or untruths. ...
"If I was mistaken, I'm sorry." Indicative (i.e., not subjunctive) because I may have been mistaken.
Mac H. said:But surely since subjunctive includes 'possibilities' by the definition above, theno "If I were mistaken, I'm sorry" IS subjunctive - as there is a possibility that I may (or may not) have been mistaken ?
OK - here's an easy question (although technically is about spelling, not grammer) :
Which is correct :
a. "Man does not live by bread alone." -or-
b. "Man does not live by bred alone." ?
Naturally the Americans here will use the 1st Edition of Webster's dictionary and the rest of us will use the Oxford English Dictionary.
By these rules, the Americans should insist that (b) is the correct spelling.
Or at least admit that maybe the people who make up the rules don't know what the hell they are talking about ...
Mac.
No. Encarta's definition of "subjunctive" isn't complete. There are other ways to talk about possibilities. For example, you can say "It's possible that the keys are under the table." That doesn't make the verb subjunctive. Subjunctive is used to state things that definitely aren't true. It would be better to say subjunctive is used for IMpossibilities and hypothetical conditions.Mac H. said:But surely since subjunctive includes 'possibilities' by the definition above, theno "If I were mistaken, I'm sorry" IS subjunctive - as there is a possibility that I may (or may not) have been mistaken ?