Comments on: Subjunctives http://benabuya.com/2008/02/13/subjunctives/ looking for alternative explanations Tue, 20 Jul 2010 04:49:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Isaac M http://benabuya.com/2008/02/13/subjunctives/#comment-7696 Isaac M Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:32:16 +0000 http://deba.wordpress.com/?p=352#comment-7696 The Modern Hebrew method is not very different from the Modern English: In English too, "she would want" can be either present or imperfect subjunctive or imperfect (habitual or iterative) indicative. The difference is that the Hebrew subjunctive, like the Hebrew indicative, has fewer tense possibilities than English, so that "she would want" and "she would have wanted" are expressed by the same words. Even the highly subordinative language of Greek expresses present contrary-to-facts with imperfect indicatives (plus the particle _an_). I wonder why this makes sense. The Modern Hebrew method is not very different from the Modern English: In English too, “she would want” can be either present or imperfect subjunctive or imperfect (habitual or iterative) indicative. The difference is that the Hebrew subjunctive, like the Hebrew indicative, has fewer tense possibilities than English, so that “she would want” and “she would have wanted” are expressed by the same words.

Even the highly subordinative language of Greek expresses present contrary-to-facts with imperfect indicatives (plus the particle _an_). I wonder why this makes sense.

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