I update diction in open source docs periodically, but avoid Americanizing the text (unless the project I’m working on has a policy of doing so). Sometimes, tho

I update diction in open source docs periodically, but avoid Americanizing the text (unless the project I’m working on has a policy of doing so). Sometimes, though, I don’t realize something’s an Americanism. One US–UK difference I hit last week was the mandative subjunctive. A sentence went: “…to request that it adds such‐and‐such…”. My instinct was to use: “…to request that it add such‐and‐such…”, but a contributor told me introducing the mandative subjunctive here would feel archaic in British English, and the former wording is typical there. Sure enough, I found some quotes from UK papers (cribbed from a Reddit post) that seem to demonstrate the practice. In the US I think I’d expect a newspaper or other formal writing to use the subjunctive in these cases, even though it’s often dropped in casual speech. > Fidel Castro has demanded that the USA stops [stop] invading Cuban airspace (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013wwyx https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013wwyx) > MPs have demanded that the Government reconsiders [reconsider] its decision to allow Huawei to help build the UK’s 5G networks (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/02/12/mps-demand-government-reverses-huawei-decision-new-explosive/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/02/12/mps-demand...) > Last month it demanded that trading positions are [be] disclosed (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jul/03/regulators.corporatefraud https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jul/03/regulators....)