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Grammar and Linguistics > help, please! I ´m confused...
help, please! I ´m confused...
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class centre
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help, please! I ´m confused...
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Hi, everyone!
It is important that he (should) have a lot of books.
It is important that he have a lot of books.
BUT
It was important that he ..........a lot of books.
What shall I write if it is in the past? I need the answer urgently, pls!
Thanks in advance
Natasha
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27 Jun 2009
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eng789
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It is important that he has a lot of books.
It was important that he had a lot of books.
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27 Jun 2009
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domnitza
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Sorry, but I have to disagree with you, eng....
It is important that requires an Infinitive. So never Present Simple.
It is important that he (should) have ...
It was important that he (should) have...
So I would use an Infinitive too.
Still, not too old to learn, if I am mistaken.
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27 Jun 2009
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eng789
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Sorry, not convinced. I would never say it that way.
It is important to ...... do something is different from
It is important that he....
I might be wrong, this native speaker has been away from Canada for a long time.
I could probably be your mother, but I ´m still not to old to learn. |
27 Jun 2009
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Bruna Dutra
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Domnitza ´s post is (more) correct in my opinion! hehehe
I say more because subjuntive is almost fading out!
Both sentences Eng posted can be seen being used, but Grammar tells us that when you have a request or a command, you should use the SUBJUNCTIVE. All problems solved if you just throw "should" in the middle!
HOWEVER:
What I think is that in the sentence "It was important that he ______ a lot of books" the sentence no longer expresses the COMMAND, SUGGESTION or REQUEST [which are the uses for SUBJUNCTIVE] of the situation like: "It ´s imperative that he arrive on time"... so, it ´s no longer important TO HAVE books, but in THAT situation he HAD TO HAVE. I would write "...that he HAD a lot of books"
--- Still, if your example comes in a workbook, or from a test or something, I think it ´s merely for practice, so I would say the MOST CORRECT would be:
"It was important that he SHOULD HAVE HAD a lot of books",
as an inversion of the sentence:
"The important thing was that he SHOULD HAVE HAD a lot of books" which sounds better to me.
Like Domnitza said, still don ´t know if I ´m quite certain.
Best regards.
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27 Jun 2009
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baiba
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It is Subjunctive Mood (typical clause It is important that...), that is why in the present it should be HAVE (Infinitive) with all subjects but in the past it is HAD as in conditional sentences.
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27 Jun 2009
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Bruna Dutra
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Well, I wouldn ´t call that a CONDITIONAL CLAUSE, and if that was the case it WOULD HAVE TO BE "that he ´WOULD HAVE � books"m wouldnt it?
Still, in my judgement the sentence doesn ´t express SUGGESTION, COMMAND or REQUEST .... therefore cannot be considered a subjunctive construction.
Do I have a case? hehehehe --- Sorry, English teacher and LAW student!!!
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27 Jun 2009
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douglas
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I can ´t tell you any of the rules for it, but this native speaker agrees with eng:
"It was important that he had a lot of books." |
27 Jun 2009
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baiba
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Actually, this is the case, as my former English professor said, that you may know grammar rules but you also have to realize that a live language works by its own rules.
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27 Jun 2009
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eng789
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I wasn ´t familiar with the rule because we don ´t teach it in Junior High. I will still stick with my gut feeling that my answer was right. And is seems that Douglas agrees.
I would prefer to say
It is important that he has access to a lot of books.
It was important that he had access to a lot of books.
or
It was important he had the use of a lot of books. |
27 Jun 2009
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