To "s" or not to "s" 3

[Dimandja]

I ran into this sentence (highlight is mine):

"During an hour-long lunch break from his job at a print shop, Romero's interlock demands that he test two more times, five minutes after he starts the truck and about 40 minutes later."

Shouldn't "test" be "tests"?

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[LFCfan]

I don't think it should be "tests" - it's not the (simple) present tense it's the, er, I can't remember what the relevant tense is called, sorry
...present perfect? something like that

 

[MakeItSo]

I'd say, it's wrong.

In my opinion, this should be reported speech, i.e. rather like this:
During an hour-long lunch break from his job at a print shop, Romero's interlock demands that he should test two more times, five minutes after starting the truck and about 40 minutes later

Or like this:
During an hour-long lunch break from his job at a print shop, Romero's interlock demands him to test two more times, five minutes after he starts the truck and about 40 minutes later

Not 100% sure about this, though.

Andy

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[CajunCenturion]

No, test is correct, but there is a grammatical error in the sentence with the use of 'he'. Grammatically, the pronoun's antecedent is the interlock, whereas semantically, we understand the antecent to be Romero.

It should read, "the interlock demands that Romero test two more times".

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[sleipnir214]

that he test" sounds right to me. But I'm having difficulty finding a site that supports my opinion.


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[sleipnir214]

I posted too quickly. This page at Bartleby, this is an example of the present subjunctive mood, and "he test" (without the "s") is correct.


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[Dimandja]

Following up on your link, sleipnir, how do we know that the sentence is introduced in the subjunctive mood, and not the indicative mood?

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[sleipnir214]

Actually, the entire sentence you posted is not in the subjunctive mood, just the clause beginning (or separated by) "that".

The subjunctive is tricky, as it doesn't appear in English often. As the Bartleby article states, it is used to express the speaker's attitude about the likelihood or factuality of a given situation.

You most commonly see it in phrases like "If I were you...", which if it were in the indicative mood [another clause in the subjunctive mood as underlined], would read "If I was you..."


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[CajunCenturion]

The subjunctive mood deals with things that are possible, but not necessarily facts.

In general, there are three or four tests that you can apply to determine if the mood is subjective. The two most common are the 'hypothetical' test, and the 'deleted should' test. Hypotheticals usually start with 'if'. In this case, the 'deleted should' is the clue. If you can place 'should' before the verb, then the sentence is likely to be subjunctive. It indicates what should happen, or might happen, but in reality, may not happen.

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[MakeItSo]

Hot damn! I thought, I only had to mess with subjunctive in French, now there's one in English, too.

Don't know, if I really want to thank for that mind-messer , but THANKS! sleipnir.

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[sleipnir214]

MakeItSo:
I think you understand it intuitively. At least your rewrite of the sentence to include "should" indicates that you do.


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[Dimandja]

>I thought, I only had to mess with subjunctive in French...

The subjunctive is a favorite of French politicians on the campaign trail. In fact, it's probably a prerequisite for a candidacy.

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> The subjunctive is a favorite of French politicians

That's because the French only deal with hypotheticals, not with reality. :-D

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[tsdragon]

If you change the sentence to supply the implied object of the verb "test" it makes more sense:

"... Romero's interlock demands that he test himself two more times, ..."


Tracy Dryden

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[elanor]

Well, all of this is very interesting, but I'm still trying to work out how an interlock (I imagine it is inanimate) could be so demanding...

Thanks!
Elanor

 

[sleipnir214]

Maybe, "I demand that you blow alcohol-free breath into this little tube, or I'll shut down the car."?


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[MakeItSo]

Where we finally arrived at another panik-free quote:

I demand that I may or may not be Broomfondel!

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]