Sowbug,
Si j'ai, j'acheterai.
Si j'avais, j'acheterais.
Si j'avais eu, j'aurais achete. Laisse-moi seul.
This is really a complex subject, and you are correct in that the evolution is away from the subjunctive. It's better not even to discuss the archaic forms used as recently as the nineteenth century; it's too confusing.
I guess the Romance languages have their own way of expressing the contrary to fact clause sequence (imperfect indicative followed by the conditional form). But in English, we really don't have a conditional form per se, so we use the past subjunctive followed by would or should.
Your last example above, translates into English in a straightforward manner: If I had had, I would have bought. Even the auxiliaries match up.
English seems to mirror the German construction, if memory serves:
H„tte ich Geld, wrde ich... (Wenn ich Geld h„tte, wrde ich...)
Had I money, I would... (If I had money, I would...)
So the English and Germans use the subjunctive mood (still) to express the doubt in the "if" clause, while the Romance language speakers just use the imperfect tense, indicative mood. But English is evolving into the Romance model, and one often hears, "If I was rich.." just as they say in French. BTW, this was apparently correct for a time in the seventeenth century.
Jack |
