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As an American, I've noticed that Brits tend to use the subjunctive form less often than we Americans do. "The doctor insisted that he spend the night." vs.
by Zach_the_Lizard 6y ago
As an American, I've noticed that Brits tend to use the subjunctive form less often than we Americans do.
"The doctor insisted that he spend the night."
vs.
"The doctor insisted that he spent the night."
The first sentence is how I would say it.
The second sentence sound very British to me.
- willyt 6y agoUs British would say the first if the doctor has (in the past) insisted that you will (in the future) spend the night and the second if you (in the past) spent the night because the doctor insisted. Is that not the same in the US?
- LyndsySimon 6y agoI doubt very many people in the US would give it enough thought to distinguish between those cases. It would be ambiguous, and if the speaker were needing to be more specific they would explicitly add context: "The doctor insisted that he spend the night tonight".
- Zach_the_Lizard 6y agoInteresting, I wasn't aware that there was a such distinction in British English between the two. Thanks for sharing. I would use the second sentence for both cases. If I needed to distinguish them, I'd probably add something like "last week" or something to clarify things.
- lmkg 6y agoBut that's present vs past tense, which is independent of the subjunctive mood. The indicative version of the first sentence would be "insisted that he spends." While placing the verb form into the past tense sounds odd to my American ears, the form "spent" could be either indicative or subjunctive. (The subjective is formed by using the plural form, which makes it indistinguishable in many cases, including the past tense of regular verbs.)
- Zach_the_Lizard 6y ago> But that's present vs past tense, which is independent of the subjunctive mood. No, it's subjunctive vs. indicative. The British form is indicative and past tense, which is not correct grammar under either British or American rules, but is used in common speech. Replace the verb with "to be", e.g. "the doctor insisted he be here." vs. "The doctor insisted he were here." to illustrate that the past subjunctive doesn't fit. The past subjunctive is almost exclusively used for hypotheticals, e.g. "If I were rich...." This isn't hypothetical. This is a mandative statement, so we use the infinitive form of the verb even if the action took place in the past.