Owning your own home

Reading that caused me pain ....

In that case, surely the second line should be 'Would you have lain with me' if the past tense is being used.

And after all that it’s only 1,700 sq foot. And the third of the triple front is a toilet.

What would you plug in over a door?

it just needs the simple past form ('lay') rather than the perfect ('have lain')

Well, I don't agree with the usual 'people have got it wrong for so long that it must now be right' or 'it wasn't considered a mistake back then, so when people consider it a mistake nowadays they don't know the history'. The words quite simply have different origins, reflected in most Germanic languages, e.g. "liegen" ('to lie') and "legen" ('to lay') in German.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/lay

https://www.etymonline.com/word/lie

What happened is that they began to sound more alike, which is when the confusion crept in, and I have no doubt that at times people didn't pay much attention to it, but while it's a fairly inconsequential example, I generally think that different ideas should have different words, and I therefore think it's still very sensible to maintain the distinction between them. Plus, I rather like the participles of 'to lie' and I don't like monodirectional word takeovers ('to lie' isn't used in place of 'to lay'). :)

In that case, surely the second line should be 'Would you have lain with me' if the past tense is being used.

Sorry, I should have been more precise. It's the past participle, not the past tense.

There are many types of past conditional sentences in English. Here are a few more examples:

https://www.englishpage.com/conditional/pastconditional.html

However, here the tense isn't actually the past, but the present. The tense of the whole sentence is determined by the main clause/the tense of the main clause (strictly speaking, the indicative in the subordinate clause doesn't have a tense--it hasn't happened, isn't happening, and may not happen, but the indicative is required because 'if' already carries the conditional sense, so adding a conditional form would be nonsense), i.e. the clause that has a subject and predicate and can therefore stand on its own.

'If I lay here' is incomplete and can't stand on its own (unless you wanted a thought to trail, for instance: 'If I lay here ...' (meaningful pause, wink, wink)) without a clause to complete it. 'Would you lie with me?' is a complete sentence in its own right and the subordinate clause depends on it.

Fun and games. :)

sometimes i think that if you were a mechanic, you'd be able to identify every single component of a car while simultaneously denying that it could propel itself forwards

Fucksake. Knotweed is nothing to worry about. Although we did stress it until we did our research. Sorry to hear you’ve had trouble with yours!

I'm hoping that there's more to it than the JKW issue, as others have suggested. Some theories are shit broker, nervous first time buyers or the fact they offered over asking then shat themselves. Their loss. Time wasting wankers.

(strictly speaking, the indicative in the subordinate clause doesn't have a tense--it hasn't happened, isn't happening, and may not happen, but the indicative is required because 'if' already carries the conditional sense, so adding a conditional form would be nonsense)

not sure i understand this. so an utterance like:

"if you would just let me finish, ..."

is nonsense?

ha genuinely thought this was the loosing thread.

I had someone delay citing coronvirus legislation. When I pointed out that their interpretation didn't match up to the law there was a bit of umming and aahing and then they pulled out. Same ones also delayed over a technicality re: the lease that wouldn't have been an issue normally. I think some are just looking for an excuse.

It was just shit as I got the call as we were finishing up the 2nd (and nearly final) viewing of the fixer upper so we were very nearly putting an offer in ourselves. Ironically, I got the call about the buyers offer in the first place as we were leaving the first viewing of the fixer upper.

It's not nonsense but it's not a complete sentence, hence the ellipsis.

South of England really, anywhere south of Birmingham would probably be fine but probably not much further east than Cambridge.

During lockdown we met up with my parents for day trips in some areas I'd never been to before to walk around. A couple of places near Daventry and then Rutland Water. There was some really nice countryside, but maybe nlt much exciting stuff happening nearby.

I don't think I'd put any band's lyrics on the wall of my house, because I'm not insane.

But if I did, the very very last band would be Snow Patrol.

Upon reflection, I think that you (and Snow Patrol) are right. It's a past conditional usage of the verb 'to lie', much in the same way as it would work if you said 'If I ate my dinner at 8 this evening, would you eat with me?'.

I don't think it's a past participle though, I think it's the simple past tense being used. The past participle for the verb 'to lie', in this sense rather than the porky pie sense, is 'lain', as in 'He had lain on his bed all day'.

Bloody Snow Patrol!

Are you still looking for your old search criteria shortly after moving?

Nothing good can come of this!

I made it a firm rule never to do this.

I don't think I'd put any band's lyrics on the wall of my house, because I'm not insane.

Me neither. Although I did paint the name of a band on the side of my race car.

And yes, I did do it at 3am.

Channelling my inner Rowley Birkin, I was very, very drunk at the time.

i'm asking more about the verb form in that clause. oliver seems to say that a conditional there would produce nonsense (whereas a non-conditional like "if you let me finish" is not nonsense)

I don't think it's a past participle though, I think it's the simple past tense being used.

yeah i think that, too

Ah, gotcha. Yes, I think Oliver is wrong on that point too - although correct about Snow Patrol being right. 'If you would let me finish...' is a double conditional, and the word 'would' is arguably redundant, but in that context it's used for emphasis. I suspect it's complicated by the fact that English doesn't really have a conditional tense, instead it uses modal verbs such as 'would' or 'should' to modify the verb stem. Anyway, owning your own home. I recommend it.

Still chucking about downlightergeddon.