May 31, 2005

"I'm really disappointed that you went for the obvious joke there."

- Dana, after I asked if her friend Rico were was Suave. I apologized immediately and let her know I was still jet lagged.

Comments

[skampy]

for the record, jet lag is no excuse for a girardo joke. there are very, very few excuses for girardo in general, actually.

[skampy]

p.s. shouldn't it be "if rico was suave" not "were" in that instance? just checking.

[JennChantal]

Before you go word-smithing my website, it's Gerardo with an "e," Ms. Smarty Pants.

Now - onto a grammar lesson from which, hopefully, we all can benefit. The subjunctive is a verb form that expresses an idea that's hypothetical or not factual. For instance, Fiddler on the Roof’s “If I Were a Rich Man” uses the subjunctive because it’s not a fact – Tevya wishes to be rich and wonders what it would be like “if he were.”

The conditional form, on the other hand, is used when the statement has the potential to be factual. “I’m really sorry if I was late.” In this case, the fact is I may or may not have been late. So, the conditional form reigns supreme.

Armed with this knowledge, I believe I should have used the conditional form when explaining the bad Rico Suave joke as you could easily have provided me with factual evidence for his suaveness or anti-suaveness.

I sincerely apologize to any and all conditional verb fans for this gross inaccuracy in my usage of the English language. Trust that I will strive for better quality assurance from here on out.