I. Writing In The Law Office (cont.)

B. Common Grammar Problems (cont.)

One of the grammatical features typical of Indo-European languages -- of which English is one -- is that verbs have moods. The mood system in English has almost disappeared. Nevertheless, there are still three moods in standard business English.

As English verbs have lost most of their inflected forms, there is often no visible difference to show the mood of a verb. English has three moods, the indicative, the imperative, and the subjunctive.

Indicative states a fact or asks a question.

Imperative makes a command or a request to the person addressed.

Subjunctive has a number of uses.

The present subjunctive is identical in form to the present indicative in all but the third person singular (he, she, or it) and with the irregular verb "to be." The present subjunctive is used after "that" clauses to introduce a situation that the subject wishes to bring about:

Small differences of meaning are conveyed with the present subjunctive.

Means John has the money, and that fact is important.

Means John better get enough money to buy a new car. He may not have enough yet.

The present subjunctive is used in several archaic formulas. It means "no matter how," "no matter what" or "even if" in phrases such as:

It follows the archaic "lest":

It is also used in the phrase "come . . . . " when "come . . . . " means "when . . . . comes":

The past subjunctive is a natural in legal arguments. It is used for "counterfactual" conditional statements. This is the quintessential legal argument for which lawyers are both revered (by clients) and reviled (by opponents).

Again, a fine distinction can be made using the past subjunctive.

Some so-called errors are recognized as "non-errors" by most grammarians. Most of these "non-errors" originated when writers on grammar and usage fell into one of the logic, common sense, or "better language" comparison traps.⁽²⁾

The problem with non-rules is that far too many people believe they are actually real rules. If your reader does not know any better, he or she will think you do not know any better. Therefore the best recommendation is to never commit a "non-error" unless it is necessary to prevent your sentence from sounding confusing, ambiguous, strained, or awkward.