AEE 2691: 3 Tips to Master Past Subjunctive Grammar
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What is the main focus of this episode on past subjunctive grammar?
This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2691. Three tips to master past subjunctive grammar. 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.
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.
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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 favorite
ice
cream flavor, what would you say?
Oh my gosh. Yes. I would tell you if you were to ask me that. Uh 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.
Why does the infinitive form (if I were to ask you) sound more hypothetical than the –ing form?
That's
Yes, see. I know usually there's a lot of options, right? Rocky Road and you've got Jamoko almond fudge and
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.
Interesting. Hmm. There's like more maybe of a trend to like fruitier flavors or
Carnivals or something. Or like kind of trendy things like lavender ice cream and you know get out of here. I don't know.
Lavender ice cream. Yeah.
There's all kinds of weird stuff in these sort of um more craft ice cream shops that I see.
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.
Yes, that's the good stuff anyways, right? Yeah. So why did you ask me that?
Yeah, so I use this construction. If I were to ask you, we got a great question in our Q ⁇ A from Pei Yao about um 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.
Yes, we um 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 there may have they may have kind of solidified mistakes, which we can make sure we're no longer making those mistakes, Aubrey.
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're 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 wanna 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.
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.
Yeah. So let's first ask Peao'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 I were to ask you, and with verb ing, if I were asking you. Such a good question. It's subtle, but there is a difference.
Yeah, and we are gonna get into it today. I mean, first of all, let's go ahead and and answer the question, you know?
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main focus of this episode on past subjunctive grammar?
0:00–2:01
2
Why does the infinitive form (if I were to ask you) sound more hypothetical than the –ing form?
2:01–4:57
3
How can the past subjunctive be used to soften questions and give the listener an out?
4:57–7:03
4
What are real‑life conversation examples that illustrate the infinitive vs. –ing constructions?
7:03–9:09
5
How does the role‑play scenario demonstrate the subtle tone differences between the two forms?
9:09–11:17
6
When should you choose the continuous subjunctive (if I were asking you) for immediacy?
11:17–13:31
7
What are the key takeaways for using past subjunctive to improve social connections?
13:31–15:10
Speakers
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