Your will be done or Your will will be done

So I have seen usages of “Your will be done” in the context when some higher authority is issuing orders but shouldn’t it be “Your will will be done”? it makes more semantic sense than the former. Answer Like Mr Beadles said, the ‘will’ here is a noun. It’s not an imperative, though, which would … Read more

Conditional clause

Yo, is this sentence correct? It’s hard to find a guide that speaks directly to this use of the subjunctive: I realized that this issue needed more active contemplation, were I to find any closure. More simply it’d be: I realized that, were I to find any closure, active contemplation was needed. Answer Only backshifting, … Read more

Help paraphrase this sentence in plain English: “He could scarcely have astonished and disturbed men more if he had actually set it moving.”

Copernicus ventured to assert that the earth moved. He could scarcely have astonished and disturbed men more if he had actually set it moving. The word could makes the part in bold sound to me as if it was written in the subjunctive mood, but I don’t understand what that second sentence says. Can you … Read more

“If I am to pick a favourite” or “If I were to pick a favourite”

I will try to keep it short and simple. How do you answer the question if this was asked as a question in person – “What is your favorite song?” I want to say I have many but if I had to select one, it will be Numb by Linkin Park. So what is the … Read more

Subjective use of ‘was’ where ‘were’ would be expected (and indeed is immediately used) by Hemingway

I’ve just encountered a seemingly strange paragraph in Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, and I wonder if anyone can give me an explanation: If the boy was here he would wet the coils, he thought. Yes. If the boy were here. If the boy were here. I understand the usage of were in … Read more