Another Subjunctive-Indicative Lesson

Maybe I should have posted this one before the previous post. but the lesson is the same.

Should be “If Lassie were a cat.”

(“Into” instead of “in” is another lesson.)

Both this and the previous post owe credit to Comic Strip of the Day.

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“If” implies a situation we call “contrary to fact.”

Speculation regarding situations contrary to fact requires that the caption read “I wish I were rich.” Otherwise, it’s plain old past tense, as the fortune teller knows.

We call it “contrary to fact.” And you should use the subjunctive instead of the indicative. Of course he’s a dog, so I guess he has permission to get it wrong.

Last panel. It should be “I wish I were a trout.”

I’ll let the grammar nazi, Mike Peterson, do the talking today. Here’s the comic, an unsigned New Yorker item:

“Whoever drew it, it got a chuckle, but it also got a flinch for something unrelated to the point of the gag.

“While I try not to be a grammar nazi, those signs bug me. There are rules about speculation against fact — Tevye sings “If I were a rich man,” not “if I was a rich man” — and the signs should read “Drive as if your child lived here.”

“Dagnabbit.

“I like the concept, but I correct it in my mind every time I go past one, and they’re everywhere.”

https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/05/25/csotd-the-dagnabbit-files/

I’d say it needs about a dozen more stanzas. You’re invited to write one or more in the comments.

I’d call the one labeled “unreal” “subjunnctive,” which is the more common name.