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Can someone please help me find subjunctive form in this passage?!

11 replies

TwigTheWonderKid · 02/04/2020 10:19

I've googled it and thought I understoodit but clearly don't as I can find it. Can't beleive I'e been defeated by Year 6 grammar Blush

We, the young, are deeply concerned about our future. Humanity is currently causing the sixth mass extinction of species and the global climate system is at the brink of a catastrophic crisis. Its devastating impacts are already felt by millions of people around the globe. Yet we are far from reaching the goals of the Paris agreement.

Young people make up more than half of the global population. Our generation grew up with the climate crisis and we will have to deal with it for the rest of our lives. Despite that fact, most of us are not included in the local and global decision-making process. We are the voiceless future of humanity.

We will no longer accept this injustice. We demand justice for all past, current and future victims of the climate crisis, and so we are rising up. Thousands of us have taken to the streets in the past weeks all around the world. Now we will make our voices heard. On 15 March, we will protest on every continent.

We finally need to treat the climate crisis as a crisis. It is the biggest threat in human history and we will not accept the world’s decision-makers’ inaction that threatens our entire civilisation. We will not accept a life in fear and devastation. We have the right to live our dreams and hopes. Climate change is already happening. People did die, are dying and will die because of it, but we can and will stop this madness.

We, the young, have started to move. We are going to change the fate of humanity, whether you like it or not. United we will rise until we see climate justice. We demand that the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.

You have failed us in the past. If you continue failing us in the future, we, the young people, will make change happen by ourselves. The youth of this world has started to move and we will not rest again.

OP posts:
DonchaWantMe · 02/04/2020 10:29

We demand that the world's decision makers TAKE (hard to spot because it's the same as it is in the indicative)

RomeoLikedCapuletGirls · 02/04/2020 10:29

We demand that the world’s decision-makers take responsibility and solve this crisis.

I feel like it should be this part because it’s a hypothetical. The verb form is correct for the subjunctive but coincidentally is the same as the indicative for the third person plural so you can’t tell.

IvinghoeBeacon · 02/04/2020 10:32

Agree, “we demand that” precedes the subjunctive

AltogetherNo · 02/04/2020 10:32

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keiratwiceknightly · 02/04/2020 10:33

As an English teacher...

  1. This doesn't matter until A level English language. Might not even matter then.
AltogetherNo · 02/04/2020 10:33

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keiratwiceknightly · 02/04/2020 10:34

Oops, posted too soon...

  1. Your child's Y6 Sats inc grammar test are cancelled. There is NO NEED for them to do this!

Sack it off and write a story instead 😉

TwigTheWonderKid · 02/04/2020 10:36

Thank you. It's good to know it wasn't glaringly obvious!

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RomeoLikedCapuletGirls · 02/04/2020 10:50

This doesn't matter until A level English language. Might not even matter then

Well it does matter in that it helps you to understand other languages which still use the subjunctive. And understanding the history of English (and how it evolved from Old German) is always fun.

You can then understand this sentence from Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol:

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

IvinghoeBeacon · 02/04/2020 12:21

For the English subjunctive I often have to say it in French to check whether it would take the subjunctive there (not foolproof because there are differences, but I’m fluent in french and it’s more obvious)

BovaryX · 02/04/2020 12:48

Just curious. Is that passage quoted a set text?

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