Subjunctive(?): not critical that

[Wilson Gray]

I think that this is a case of the unfortunately-fading subjunctive.
However, I applaud your use of it.

A practical reason for retaining the subjunctive is the fact that
other languages have it or an equivalent. These foreign subjunctives
are difficult to grasp, even when you're an active user of the English
subjunctive, which itself can be difficult to grasp, as this thread
shows.

-Wilson

On 3/19/08, Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
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>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>  Poster:       Benjamin Barrett <gogaku at IX.NETCOM.COM>
>  Subject:      Subjunctive(?): not critical that
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  I recently wrote a sentence, which said in part, "it's not critical
>  that everything *tie* together."
>
>  My client wants to know if it should be "ties."
>
>  Is this a case of the fading subjunctive (in which case either is
>  okay), or is there something else going on here?
>
>  Benjamin Barrett
>  a cyberbreath for language life
>  livinglanguages.wordpress.com
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                              -Sam'l Clemens

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