In article <slrndpdsna.ldo.chris@ccserver.keris.net>,
Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net> wrote:
> > "If I were to be born again, I shall be a great scholar" sounds a bit
> > off to my [American] ear. It's not QUITE mixed-tenses, but it has that
> > same "not quite right" ring to it.
> The subjunctive is difficult to get right, and is often mangled in
> modern English (and American), many people use 'was' instead of 'were'.
> It's one of the oddities of English tenses that an apparent past plural
> ('were') is used for a singular future. In modern English the present
> is often heard instead ("If I am to be born again") with an implication
> of slightly more certainty (or at least less uncertainty).
Actually, now that I look at it again, wouldn't the matching tenses be
more along the lines of "if I am to be born again, I shall be a great
scholar" or "if I were to be born again, I would be a great scholar"..?
Even though it's clear that to be born again is some future event, "if I
were" seems to have an already-completed feeling, even with the
following "to be", which is clearly future. The whole "if I were to be"
phrase seems to carry a sort of "once it's over and done with, and we
are in THAT event's future" type of meaning.
I realize that you are more expert than I in this area, and so pose the
preceding as a question.
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