AEE 2691: 3 Tips to Master Past Subjunctive Grammar

This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2691, Three Tips to Master Past Subjunctive Grammar. Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American hosts, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.

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If we were to ask you what you think about Allers English, what would you say? Today, find out why you would use a grammar construction like this one and who you should use it with.

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Start now at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hey there, Aubrey.

I'm feeling pretty good today. What are we talking about on the show today? I have a question for you. If I were to ask you your favorite ice cream flavor, what would you say?

Oh my gosh. Yes. I would tell you if you were to ask me that. It's chocolate. And lately I've been super annoyed because I go into ice cream shops and there's very little, very few chocolate flavors.

That's crazy. I know usually there's a lot of options, right? Rocky Road and you've got Jamocha Almond Fudge and... That's what I remember as a kid. Yeah, but these days I think it's like out of style or something.

It's usually just plain chocolate. I'm looking for chocolate peanut butter, chocolate double chocolate, chocolate chocolate chip. I just don't find it anywhere. Interesting.

There's like more maybe of a trend to like fruitier flavors or... caramels or something or like kind of trendy things like lavender ice cream and you know get out of here i don't know lavender ice cream yeah there's all kinds of weird stuff in these sort of um more craft ice cream shops that i see interesting you just have to go to like an old school mom and pops hard scoop ice cream place to get the good stuff yes yes that's the good stuff anyways right yeah so why did you ask me that aubrey Yeah. So I used this construction, if I were to ask you, we got a great question in our Q&A from Pei Yao about if I were to ask you versus if I were asking you, why we would choose one or the other.

And I'm excited to dive into this really interesting grammar today. Yes. We haven't talked about grammar in a few weeks, but we are here to get into it today. I know a lot of our listeners have a lot of grammar questions or they may have kind of solidified mistakes, which we can make sure we're no longer making those mistakes, Aubrey.

Yes. And I know I've had podcast listeners have told me that often we'll do a grammar episode and it'll be like they'll say, didn't even think to, like they had never had that question. But as soon as they hear it, they're like, oh, yeah, I want to know. So that's kind of fun to sort of discover the questions you have about grammar in such a fun way and then immediately get answers.

Yeah, this is probably one of those episodes today. Guys, hit the follow button right here, right now on All Ears English so that you don't miss a single episode. All right? Yeah.

So let's first ask Peyo's question. I'll share it here. What she said was, when using a conditional, what is the difference between an infinitive and verb ing? So for example, with the infinitive, if I were to ask you, and with verb ing, if I were asking you.

Such a good question. It's subtle, but there is a difference. Yeah, we are going to get into it today. I mean, first of all, let's go ahead and answer the question.

What can we tell to start off the episode? Yeah, so both breezes are hypothetical constructions used to introduce a question, but with an infinitive, if I were to ask you, is more distant and hypothetical? Yeah. While with a verb ING, if I were asking you, is more immediate and directly implies a more possible scenario or a situation currently unfolding.

But we're going to dive into it with lots of examples so that you today have a really good idea of when you would use each one. Yes, I love it. So good. Yeah, like I said, guys, don't forget to hit the follow button.

And remember that All Ears English is over on YouTube, including this episode. We're on video. All right. So if you prefer to watch YouTube as you consume All Ears English, you can do that.

Just go to YouTube and type in All Ears English podcast and you will find it. Yes. Awesome. Waving to anyone watching on YouTube. And that's a great place to ask questions too.

You can ask questions, things you'd like to hear in a podcast or leave a comment, right? Often we're talking about cultural things that we would love to hear. What's this like where you live, right? It's so interesting.

Yes. Yeah. We love to get into the cultural stuff. So, all right. Sorry. Got to clear my throat here. Oh my gosh. We should do an episode on how to say you need to clear your throat.

Right? There's a few things we say. All right. Let's get into number one, Aubrey. Yeah. So this first one is, if I were to ask you, this is for hypotheticals and it's past subjunctive mood with an infinitive, that two plus the base verb.

So that's sort of the grammar construction here. It sounds very complicated, but we use this as a chunk. If you If I were to ask you, and we often do it like I did for Lindsay, right?

If I were to ask you your favorite ice cream, of course I can just say, Lindsay, what's your favorite ice cream flavor? Right. But you didn't do that. Yeah.

What do you feel? What does this feel for you, Lindsay, when we add that before a question? Yeah, that's a great question, Aubrey. You're kind of testing things out.

It's less direct. Yeah, it sort of makes it playful for something like that. And we'll use it another way where we are framing a question as purely theoretical and imaginary. So we do this a couple of different ways.

we sort of do it to make something even more lighthearted and playful. And then we also do it to soften direct questions and create distance about subject matter that might be a little more difficult. You don't want to be direct about it, right? Right, right.

So let's give some examples so we can be really specific. So we're talking about romantic relationships. If I were to ask you what led to the breakup, would you be willing to talk about it? So I'm not actually directly saying, Aubrey, what led to the breakup?

Right. I'm asking you if I were to ask you. You're almost asking permission to ask the question. Hypothetically, if I were to ask you about that, would that be okay?

And we do this a lot, especially for something personal like this, where maybe we're not sure we should even be asking. We might start it with this. What's another example? Yeah.

Maybe you'd say, what would you say if I were to ask your advice? And then maybe you'd say what the advice is about. So then you're sort of prepping someone. You're like letting them know, would you even want to talk about this?

Would you want to give advice? And that gives someone sort of an out if they're like, oh, no, I don't want to talk about this. Yeah. Makes it easier also to kind of move on.

You're not fully committing to asking the question. Exactly. Right. And then we have the second construction. So if I were asking you, this is the past continuous subjunctive, and this does create a stronger sense of immediacy.

We're sort of guiding the listener to imagine this conversation happening right now in that exact moment, right? It does feel more conversational and present than if I were to ask you.

Right, right, right. Exactly. But they're similar though, aren't they? In meaning. Very similar when you think about it. Exactly. This is so subtle, right?

This is a very slight nuance. There's no chance that a native speaker is going to hear you use one or the other and think that you're wrong or have it sound off. It's interesting that we even have both. It's such a slight nuance that in present continuous or past continuous subjunctive, you feel like you're drawing the listener into what you're saying.

It's very much like when we narrate a story, we've talked about that a lot lately, you want to draw the listener in, right? Make them feel like they're a part of it. So for example, I might say, if I were asking your opinion about current politics, what would you say? Yes.

right? And of course I could use either. I could say, if I were to ask you, both work. But when I choose, if I were asking you with this verb, I N G, I'm trying to make it more immediate and also more conversational.

Like if I were asking you this right now, what would you say? Yeah. Very subtle difference. Yes. So we're going to take a little break guys, and then we're going to come back and put these immediately into a role play just to make it super clear.

So we walk away crystal clear about all this, right? All right. Do you ever start speaking English That's why we created our two-minute fluency quiz. It shows you your exact English level right now so you know what to work on next.

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All right, Aubrey, let's break out into a role play. So here you and I are friends and we're just meeting for coffee, probably talking about some, maybe some heavy subjects or something, right? You want to start us out? All right.

Hey, you seem a lot happier lately. Really? I guess I am. Well, if I were to ask you what's changed, what would you say? Honestly, I've been making more time for myself.

I used to spend all my free time running my kids to their activities. Ooh, that makes sense. You were always so busy. Yeah, I realized I needed some me time more often.

If I were asking your family, do you think they'd say they've noticed a difference too? Definitely. I used to be pretty grumpy, and I'm sure they've noticed a change.

Nice. Okay. So again, yeah, this is – depending on how close we are, it could be kind of crossing a line of maybe we're just not super close friends, right? I think that makes a really good point, Lindsay, right?

Because often we add these. Like we said, we don't want to be quite so direct. With a friend, you probably would more often just say like, what's going on? What's changed?

What kind of ice cream do you like? But when the relationship isn't as close, you do sometimes feel like you almost need permission before you get deeper.

Exactly. And the ice cream example is just kind of so we could use that example, right? Probably I would just say, hey, Aubrey, what kind of ice cream do you like? Yeah.

As you guys have noticed, we ask questions a lot on this podcast and we rarely start with this because it's always like a question that we're asking a friend, but that's not always the situation. Right. So we used both constructions here and I started by saying, oh, you seem happier lately. If I were to ask you what's changed, what would you say?

It's so interesting. And this is an interesting construction. Because you're not saying, if I were to ask you what's changed, would you answer? Or like, would that be okay with you?

Instead, you're starting it with this sort of almost permission, but you are actually asking, right? Interesting. Yeah. And from there, we might rely on body language.

If you kind of put up your hand and say, oh, no, no, no, let's talk about something else, or you change the subject, I still have that cover that I haven't fully asked you the question directly. Exactly. You've given yourself an out. And this is really important in conversations, especially with people who aren't the closest friends or family, maybe, to give yourself that out so that no awkwardness is created if someone doesn't want to talk about it.

Yes, exactly. Interesting. Okay. And then this is interesting. You asked later in the role play, if I were asking your family, do you think they'd say they've noticed a difference too?

And this is a little different. This is really interesting. It's the same grammar form. But instead of saying, you know, if I were asking you, what would you say?

That would almost be strange after having already asked me that. But you could say this, right? Either if I were to ask your family about this, or if I were asking your family about this, what would they say? Both work.

You can see this very, very minor difference of here. You're putting us both in this situation as if it's real and right now by using that continuous tense. Exactly. But again, both could be an option there.

Absolutely. If I were to ask your family hypothetically, like tomorrow, for example, right? As opposed to if I were asking your family right now, right? And this happens a lot with English grammar, that verb tenses won't necessarily be wrong, whether you are choosing a

present simple or present continuous, or maybe past simple, past continuous. It's not that one is wrong. It's that there is a little bit of a different feeling, a different tone, whether you feel like it's more happening right now or has import to what's happening right now. Often, that's what the grammar does is create these very slight changes.

Yes, really good stuff. Great topic today. Love that we got into some grammar. Guys, go over and check out 2695, Running on Fumes, Idioms for Expressing Exhaustion, right?

If you're feeling tired, these are the idioms that you need. Yes, I love that one. I'm running on fumes. I use that one a lot, but all of the idioms in that episode were amazing.

Scroll up if you missed that episode. Exactly. What's our takeaway for today when it comes to connection? Yeah, this is so interesting. I know a lot of people, whatever language you're learning, you let grammar keep you from connecting.

You're worried about making grammar mistakes. Often, I love that we're able to share this message of, yes, there are two different grammar constructions for this. You can use them both. You don't need to stress about it.

This is one thing where we can give you this good news of neither is wrong. Exactly. I love that. And this is interesting because we're talking about distance between, like how close are you to the person?

This gives us a chance to consider all of this, gives our listeners the flexibility. We can't use the same ways of phrasing things depending on who we're in front of. We need to adjust to who's in front of us. Exactly.

Absolutely. The relationship we consider before everything, and it does affect our grammar, our tone. A lot changes depending on how informal the the connection is, the relationship is, the situation is, changes everything.

Yeah, for sure. I think our listeners are ready for this level of understanding here, Aubrey. Good stuff. Awesome. Thanks for joining me today, Lindsay.

This was really fun. See you next time, Aubrey. Take care. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz.

Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.