First conditional

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

  1. The president proposed that the salaries of all exectives
    be slashed by 10 percent for three months.

  2. The court ordered taht the company pay $2 million in compensation to the plaintiff.

  3. It is desirable that everybody in our department take part in the volunteer work.

For all these three example sentences, the verb in that-clause are “base form”. That is because “should” is omitted before the verbs.
If so, is it also OK to add “should” before the verbs?

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

Hi Pooh,

All of your sentences are OK (except for a couple of typos). They are not examples of ‘conditional type 1’ sentences, however. Type 1 conditional sentences are IF-sentences.

Your sentences use the present subjunctive. The present subjunctive has the same form as a bare infinitive (i.e. same as the base form of a verb). It is also possible to use should + bare infinitive instead in your sentences.

Sentences 1 and 2 are quite natural, but sentence 3 is a little bit borderline for subjunctive usage. The subjunctive would seem more natural to me if the word ‘desirable’ were intensified:

    1. It is extremely desirable that everybody in our department take part in the volunteer work.
      [color=darkblue]________________________________________________________
      [size=75]“Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” ~ Albert Einstein[/size]
3

Hi, Esl Expart. You look like Jannifer Beals in Flashdance! :slight_smile:

Can I say, “I (strongly) think that she do this before the deadline.” without “shoud”?

4

Hi Pooh,

That’s the first time anyone has ever told me I looked like Jennifer Beals. Too bad I wasn’t wearing an over-sized sweatshirt with one shoulder exposed that day. And if that picture had been taken in Pittsburgh rather than in Luxembourg, that really would have added to the “Flashdance Effect”. lol

No, the present subjunctive would not be natural at all in that sentence, but the sentence is fine with ‘should do’.

If you used the verb ‘suggest’ rather than ‘think’, then the sentence would work quite well with the subjunctive.

The present subjunctive tends to be used almost exclusively with specific verbs and phrases. That is why the 3rd sentence in your first post seemed a bit off. The verb ‘desire’ is not a verb that I consider to be one of the more commonly used with the subjunctive. Take a look at this thread:
english-test.net/forum/ftopi … html#64120
[color=darkblue]___________________________________________
[size=75]“I didn’t speak English until I came to Pittsburgh.” ~ Mario Lemieux [/size]

5

OK, I’ve checked the link you said. I didn’t know “important” can be used as subjuncitve too!!
I just try to memorize all those verbs and adjectives then.

Thanks a lot!! :slight_smile: