subjunctive mood

This question is about the subjunctive mood. Which statement is correct and why. "If it weren't important, he wouldn't have given it to me."

Or

"If it wasn't important, he wouldn't have given it to me." - Thanks!

Feb 07, 2011

Expressing the Subjunctive Mood
by: Ola Zur

Hi,

If you want to express the First Conditional (meaning, a condition that has a possibility of existing in the FUTURE), you can say:
"If it is important, he will not give it to me."
(Maybe he will give it to me and maybe he will not.)

If you want to express the Second Conditional (meaning, a condition that is unlikely to exist in the FUTURE, or which is contrary to the PRESENT), you can say:
"If it were important, he wouldn't give it to me."
(I don't think he would actually give it to me)

If you want to express the Third Conditional (meaning, a condition that cannot possibly exist, because you are talking about PAST events), you can say:
"If it had been important, he wouldn't have given it to me."
(The event has already taken place, and he has already given it to me.)

You can visits the following sections for more data on the English Conditionals, or the Subjunctive Mood.

I hope this helps :)

Ola Zur is the editor of www.really-learn-english.com, an illustrated guide to English.

subjunctive mood

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