On Sat, 10 Dec 2022 11:01:05 +1100, Peter Moylan
<pe...@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:
>On 10/12/22 01:25, Tony Cooper wrote:
>> On Fri, 9 Dec 2022 08:36:20 +0000, GordonD <
g.d...@btinternet.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 09/12/2022 04:51, Tony Cooper wrote:
>>>
>>>> If a Temple or Mosque would have been the building in the
>>>> surrounding area
>>>
>>> It seems to be normal AmE usage but why did you write "If... *would
>>> have been* the building..."? In BrE we would use simple past tense
>>> and say "If... *had* been the building..." Something I have always
>>> wondered.
>>
>> When you ask "why?" it seems as if you think there was some plan or
>> intent or that I gave the construction some consideration.
>>
>> It was the "normal" way it came out.
>
>It's still an interesting question, though. We know that BrE and AmE
>have differences, but a difference in ways tenses are used is a fairly
>major difference, and worthy of note.
>
There are certain constructions in my writing that are deprecated by
BrE speakers, and some that are deprecated by AmE speakers.
I don't have the grounding in grammar that most in this newsgroup
have, In college, I took the required "Comp 101" which was the only
required English course in my major, two creative writing courses, and
a course in business communication that was really about how to write
an effective business letter.
In Comp (Composition) 101, and in the creative writing courses, grades
were based on the ability to write something creatively,
interestingly, and coherently. The business writing course was more
about organization of thoughts and presenting them in a letter. I
aced all of those courses.
The "why" question implies to me that there is some deliberate choice
involved, and most of what I write is free-flowing without much
deliberation. If it clearly expresses the thought, I go with it.
The idea of thinking "Should I use 'would have been' or 'had been'?"
just doesn't enter my mind.
>Romance languages have a conditional tense, and Germanic languages
>don't, and that leads to a major difference in the way "if" clauses are
>expressed, a difference that I find interesting. The difference is
>understandable, though, given that the two language families have
>different ancestors. It's more of a surprise when we find such
>differences in languages that have a recent common ancestor.
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