3 Tips to Master Past Subjunctive Grammar
All Ears English Podcast
In this episode, hosts Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon dive into the subtle nuances of the past subjunctive grammar constructions. They ex
Key takeaways
- The construction 'if I were to ask you' is more distant, hypothetical, and used to frame purely theoretical scenarios.
- The continuous form 'if I and were asking you' creates a sense of immediacy and implies a situation currently unfolding.
Main topics
- Past Subjunctive Grammar
- Social Nuance in English
Notable quotes
Focusing on connection, not perfection.
Conclusion
The main takeaway is that learners should use grammar as a tool for so
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2691, three tips to master past subjunctive grammar. Speaker 1 (0:09) 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 host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer. coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. To get real-time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the All Ears English app for iOS and Android. Start your seven-day free trial at allearsenglish.com forward slash app. Speaker 2 (0:58) 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. Do you ever leave a conversation in English thinking, why didn't I say more? You knew the words, but you couldn't find the right moment to jump in. Show your personality or really connect. That's exactly why we created Socializing in English, our brand new course. We can't wait for you to check it out. You'll learn the unwritten social skills that most English courses never teach. So you can stop feeling awkward or invisible and start feeling like yourself in English. Enrollment is open now. Go to allearsenglish.com slash social. This week only, you can save up to $100 off the normal price. One more time. go to allearsenglish.com slash S-O-C-I-A-L. Speaker 1 (2:08) 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 Speaker 2 (2:17) favorite ice cream flavor, what would you say? Speaker 1 (2:20) 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. Speaker 2 (2:32) I know usually there's a lot of options, right? Rocky Road and you've got Jamocha Almond Fudge and... Speaker 1 (2:37) 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. Speaker 2 (2:50) Interesting. There's like more maybe of a trend to like fruitier flavors or. Speaker 1 (2:55) Yeah, or I think, or like kind of trendy things like lavender ice cream and, you know. Get out of here with the lavender Speaker 2 (3:02) ice cream. Yeah, Speaker 1 (3:03) there's all kinds of weird stuff in these sort of more craft ice cream shops that I see. Speaker 2 (3:09) Interesting. You just have to go to like an old school mom and pop's hard scoop ice cream place to get the good stuff. Speaker 1 (3:14) Yes, yes. That's the good stuff anyways, right? Yeah. So why did you ask me that, Aubrey? Speaker 2 (3:19) 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. Speaker 1 (3:36) 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. Speaker 2 (3:51) 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 too, to sort of discover the questions you have about grammar in such a fun way and then immediately get answers. Speaker 1 (4:11) 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. Speaker 2 (4:20) Yeah. So let's first ask Peiao'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