Sometimes, what might have been never stops mattering. By Jean Chen Ho I’ve always had an unstable relationship to time. Maybe that’s because in Chinese, my first language, verbs aren’t conjugated.

Olly Jezek from the Czech Republic writes: Please could you explain how to use the subjunctive? E.g.: ‘It’s important that the lesson be funny.’ When should we use ‘be’ and why? Maria Goranova from ...

Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. A recent Economist magazine column looked at the English past subjunctive. The present subjunctive gets much less attention. This ...