Hi E,
I agree with you on all counts. That business of "the thing is, is..." is sort of like peppering one's sentences with "like" -- redundant chaff, as when a speaker says "uhhh" every third word or so.
Your last point, the totally incorrect use of the subjunctive-conditional clause sequence is one of the things which I also find maddening. Sometime in the seventies, I noticed my kids were saying things like:
"If I would have known you expected me home sooner, I would have called you."
The proper English construction (as I envision it) for things "contrary to fact" and taking place in the past, requires the use of the past perfect subjunctive for the conditional clause, and the use of "should, would, or might" along with the perfect infinitive in the conclusion. For example:
If I had known you expected me home sooner, I would have called you.
German is similar to English, (as I recall):
Hätte ich gewusst...,...würde ich...
But the French use the perfect conditional and never use the subjunctive with "if".
Si j'avais su.....j'aurais...
Fowler is rather opaque on this subject. The best discussion of the subject that I have found is in Curme's "A Grammar of the English Language" republished by Verbatim.
I also discussed this in a post on this thread some time ago:
Message 3314900
Best,
Jack |
