Five regrets, and which of them can be examined
A. If only I had left ten minutes earlier. · B. If only I had been born in a different country. · C. If only she had told me before the meeting. · D. If only humans had never invented money. · E. If only I were a more patient person.
Five questions. All five sentences are grammatical.
1. Which two take a single change and could be argued about?
2. What is wrong with B and D?
3. What kind of statement is E?
4. Which one could you actually check?
5. Why is the untestable regret the more comfortable one to say?
One change, and the form that points the other way
Moments, conditions, and the quiet subjunctive
The historian’s rule from Lesson 2 is not only about history. Applied to a life it does something quite useful: it separates the regrets you can do something with from the ones that are only weather.
A one-change regret names a moment, an action and a person who could have acted — usually you. If only I had rung her that Sunday. Every part of it can be tested. Was the phone in the room? Did you have five minutes? Would she have answered? Sometimes the honest answer is no, and that is a genuinely useful discovery, because a regret that fails its own test can be retired.
A no-change regret names a condition instead. If only I were a different sort of person. There is no occasion in it, nothing about it can be checked, nothing follows from it, and it will never be retired. Which, uncomfortably, may be its function: the regret that cannot be examined is the one you get to keep for ever.
So the practical move in this unit is a conversion, and it is harder than it sounds. Take a condition and find the moment inside it. If only I were braver becomes if only I had said something in that meeting in March — and the second sentence is worse to say, more specific, and the only one of the two that anything can be done about.
There is also a second unreal form in English, and it points the other way. Alongside the counterfactual, which looks backwards at what did not happen, sits a form for what has not happened yet: I suggested that she ring him. Not rings. That is the subjunctive, it is almost invisible, and it appears after a small and very examinable set of verbs.
Three questions.
1. What does a one-change regret contain that a condition-regret does not?
2. What is the value of a regret that fails its own test?
3. How does the subjunctive differ from the counterfactual?
Two kinds of unreal
Everything English marks as not-real, and what each one means
| Form | What is unreal | Example |
|---|---|---|
| wish / if only + past simple | A present state, contrary to fact | I wish I lived closer. If only it were Friday. |
| wish / if only + past perfect | A past event, contrary to fact — one moment | If only I had rung her that Sunday. |
| Third conditional | A past event and its consequence | If I had rung her, she would have told me herself. |
| wish + would | Somebody else’s willingness — a complaint | I wish he would ring. |
| Subjunctive after suggest, recommend, insist… | Not yet real: something proposed or demanded | I suggested that she ring him. They insisted that it be done. |
The subjunctive, in ninety seconds. After suggest · recommend · insist · demand · propose · request · ask (that), English uses the bare infinitive — for every person and regardless of the tense of the main verb.
I suggest that he go. Not goes.
She recommended that he go. Not went.
They insisted that the report be rewritten. Not was.
British English very often uses should instead — I suggest that he should go — and both are correct. The bare form is commoner in writing and is what an exam expects.
The one real trap. Suggest and recommend never take an object followed by an infinitive. I suggest you to speak to her. She suggested me to apply. Portuguese allows exactly that pattern, which is why it is the commonest error in this area by a wide margin.
Eight sentences. Match each to what it marks as unreal.
Five questions.
1. I suggest that he ___ immediately.
2. They recommended that she ___ told at once.
3. Which is impossible?
4. What does British speech often use in place of the bare form?
5. Which regret can be retired?
Backwards and forwards
Rewrite each sentence using the word given, keeping the meaning the same.
I regret not ringing her that Sunday. ONLY
She did not tell me, so I went into the meeting unprepared. HAD
My advice is that he should apply immediately. SUGGEST
The committee insisted on the report being rewritten. BE
It is a pity I do not live nearer my parents. WISH
He keeps interrupting people and I find it exhausting. WOULD
In your position I would say nothing at all. WERE
They asked for the meeting to be moved to Thursday. THAT
Eight sentences. Seven need work; one is correct as written.
1. I suggest you to speak to her directly.
2. They recommended that she is told immediately.
3. If only I would have rung her that Sunday.
4. If I would have known, I would have said something.
5. If I was you, I would say nothing.
6. The committee insisted the report to be rewritten.
7. I wish I lived nearer my parents. — correct as written
8. She suggested me that I apply for the transfer.
Finding the moment inside the condition
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 10 minutes
Four regrets of your own, sorted, tested, and — for at least one of them — converted from a condition into a moment.
Ten minutes. The conversion in the last bullet is the whole exercise; everything before it is preparation.
- 3 minutes alone: write four regrets. Do not edit them and do not make them presentable.
- Sort each one: does it name a moment — a day, a room, a conversation — or a condition?
- Test the moments, out loud, with three questions: was it possible, was there time, and would it actually have made a difference? Retire the ones that fail, and say aloud which one you are retiring.
- Convert one condition into a moment. If only I were braver → if only I had said something in that meeting in March. Your partner’s job is to keep asking when? until a date appears.
The converted sentence will be harder to say, and that is the evidence it is the right one. A condition-regret protects you: nothing about it can be checked, so nothing about it can be lost. A moment-regret exposes a specific afternoon on which you could have done something else — and it is the only version that can ever be finished with.
What the conversion cost
Two questions.
1. How many of your four named a moment before you started?
2. What happened to the converted one?
Two directions of unreal
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Which regret can be tested and retired?
2. After suggest and recommend, what follows that?
Next. Twenty-six minutes of alternative history — one change each, argued properly, with a rule that stops anybody escaping into a mood.