It’s time we leave.
It’s time we left.
Is there a difference in meaning between the sentences?
Thanks.
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Could a fellow member please help? Thanks.
They both mean the same thing.
Both are in common use. Although, “It’s time for us to leave.” is the most common way of saying it.
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As far as I understand, ‘It’s time’ is an expression that demands the following clause in the past simple tense construction.
So, ‘It’s time we left.’ is grammatical and correct!
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Both forms are idiomatic, so grammar does not necessarily apply.
However, I looked this up. It’s confusing and beyond me, but many people are arguing that the following are correct.
It’s time we left
It’s time we ate
If I were a carpenter
If I were to do that
If you weren’t so busy…
The argument is that this is a mood. I’m seeing terms thrown around like subjunctive mood, unreal mood, or irrealis mood.
“It’s time we left” is an unreal mood. It expresses a situation that [ at the present time ] should have already happened, but did not.
It might be a conditional “what if”, like the song:
If I were a carpenter, and you were a lady
Would you marry me anyway. Would you have my baby
Another example is the song:
I wish you were here
This unreal mood is pretty common.
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