If I were you, I'd read this post on subjunctive verbs

Have you ever noticed that sometimes people say things like 'If I were able to, I would dance all night', or 'If I were president, I'd make it illegal to chew loudly', and you're all like 'hang on friend, why are you talking in the past tense? Don't you mean "If I was able to, I would dance all night", and "If I was President, I'd make it illegal to chew loudly"?'

And then they say 'no way! I mean "if I were able to", because I'm talking in the subjunctive.'

The subjunctive is a verb form that you use when you are talking about scenarios that are not definitely going to happen. 

For example, instead of saying 'If I was God', you would generally say 'If I were God', because you're probably not going to become God anytime soon.

The structure of the subjunctive is easy. For all verbs except the past tense of be, the subjunctive is the same as the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to"):

be (past)               be (present)                        Other verbs, (i.e to swim)


I were                    I be                                     I swim

you were               you be                                  you swim

he, she, it were     he, she, it be                        he, she, it swim

we were                we be                                 we swim

 you were                you be                               you swim

they were              they be                                 they swim


As you can see, the subjunctive does not change according to person (I, you, he etc).

Here are some examples with a subjunctive verb:


The farmer insists that the barn be locked at night.

The doctor recommended that he join a gym.

It is essential that we leave as soon as possible

It was necessary that every student submit an essay by Friday

And now, a subjunctive treat for all my grammar brothers and sisters, an amazing home made video by two very clever cats, all about the Spanish subjunctive. It's a bit off topic for us, since I usually talk about Spanish grammar on my other blog 'Señor Gramática - Basta!, Es el momento de la gramática!' but who can resist when these two bright students sing 'And I'm like, Present, Present Subjunctive'

Who's laughing now? The difference between whose and who's

A while ago MC Grammar got addicted to wiki answers. It's hard to say what it was about this particular interactive social media that I fell for: perhaps it was the satisfying aspect of asking a question, then an anonymous person taking the time to read over my question, then answer it seriously. After a few months, wiki answers was being taken over more and more by people who didn't believe in dinosaurs, so I just lost interest and took up nature photography instead. But back when I was having good times on wiki answers, sometimes I liked to mix it up a little bit and ask unusual questions. Once, during a late night session on wiki answers, I asked Whose hands are these? It didn't really mean anything, I just asked because it thought it might get an interesting answer. And an interesting answer it did receive, as the response I received back was: These are the hands of Banquo. Thank you, anonymous poster, I enjoyed this answer and its fun approach. I would like to see more of these on the internet.

And this brings us to our post for today, the difference between whose and who. The difference between these two words is a little bit like the difference between your and you're. They sound similar, but they mean very different things.

Always remember that:

Who's = 'who is'

Who's at the door?

Whose = possessive

Whose socks are these?

With the knowledge and understanding of these two words added to the stainless steel toolbox of your grammar skills, you will be able to construct the ultimate spice rack of grammar.