Past subjunctive: were — Mood Is Not an Accident
Grammar: Subjunctive
Free ESL grammar exercise on past subjunctive: were themed around mood is not an accident. Printable worksheet from EnglishPlans.com.
What's on this worksheet
A Level 6 (proficiency) ESL grammar exercise on education, practising subjunctive. The worksheet has a short reading excerpt, a grammar reference and graded practice items.
From the reading
The difference between if I was wrong and if I were wrong is a difference in epistemic stance. Were English to retain a fully inflected subjunctive, its speakers might offload onto grammar the signalling work they currently do with adverbs and hedges.
Grammar: Subjunctive
- Hypothetical: if I
- If I were fluent in Mandarin, my thinking might differ. — unreal or unlikely condition
- Concessive: as if /
- She spoke as if grammar were a trivial concern. — concessive or comparative unreal
Sample items
- If English ______ a full subjunctive, speakers would rely less on adverbs.
- ______ it not for language contact, inflection might have survived intact.
- The researcher spoke as if the counterfactual ______ self-evidently true.
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