Just got half its siding ripped off by the not-quite-really-a-tornado that just breezed through town.  I got a lousy pic or two that I’ll post for you later. [EDIT: posted a pic from the next day instead.]

For now, back to my rum and coke.

Exciting!

Hmm.  The American Heritage Book of Usage tells us:

English has had a subjunctive mood since Old English times, but most of the functions of the old subjunctive have been taken over by auxiliary verbs like may and should, and the subjunctive survives only in very limited situations. It has a present and past form.

So, there is no future subjunctive tense in English?

I’m grading a paper that includes a sentence something like this:

“It was the first day of my Junior year, 2004, at Thomas High School.  A new larger high school will open in 2006.  But this meant very little to me since I will already have graduated high school by that time.”

His point is that he mistakenly assumed that the opening of the new school was two years off, when in in fact it opened the following year, forcing him to attend a new high school senior year.  I suggested that the instances of “will” in this sentence be changed to “would,” of course.  And I was going to write “subjunctive” here.  Isn’t this then a future subjunctive tense? 

/Google searches/

Ok, I guess this is in the “Future Unreal Conditional” tense.  I’m not sure I’m fully grasping the distinction.  Oh sweet mysteries of grammar!

Back to grading.