What might have been - or be
"The human fascination with what might have been is tiresome, Doctor." General Martok said that to Dr Bashir in the Deep Space Nine episode "Soldiers of the Empire". Earl in Pickles has been expressing the same sentiment, differently phrased, in Pickles all this week, ending with today's strip:
Earl and Opal have crossed from wondering "what might have been" to "what might be".
Interestingly, in English, they both are expressed with "if + past" (a trait English shares with Russian, by the way), but usually the aspect is different: "what if I had decided" is counter-factual, but "what if I decided" is merely a question about the future.
Labels: language
4 Comments:
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At 2:35 PM, October 17, 2009
Barry Leiba had this to say...
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At 2:41 PM, October 17, 2009
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 4:16 PM, October 18, 2009
Uncle G had this to say...
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At 4:28 PM, October 18, 2009
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->I'd say that "What if I decided...?" is colloquial usage. The more "proper" form, which we'd consider a bit formal, stilted, or at least hoity-toity, is "What if I should decide...?"
In informal usage, it's ambiguous, and needs context. It's perfectly common to omit the "had" in past-tense usage as well.
"What if I should decide?" I'd never say that.
It's barely possible that I'd say "Should I decide..."
But you're right. "What if I married Bob instead of Jim?" is common enough. Though "What if I'd ..." is more common, in my experience, though the 'd can be easily elided.
I'd say "What if I were to decide ..."
But what do I know?
Ah! The elusive subjunctive seen in the wild!
Yes, that's the formal and old way - the problem being that only for "to be" does that form differ from the simple past.
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