Matt Brundage

No doubt this topic has been covered before, but I’d like to delve into the semantics of Microsoft’s “Favorites” versus Netscape’s, Opera’s, Mozilla’s, and Apple’s “Bookmarks”. Despite Microsoft having used the name “Favorites” since 1995 — practically the fledgling days of the web — it never really caught on with the masses. The word just sounded clunky as a verb; people continued to use the verb “bookmark” long after they had dumped Mosaic and Netscape and embraced Internet Explorer en masse.

“Bookmarks” is elegant and descriptive in its specificity. The feature is implicitly defined by our prior knowledge of what an actual bookmark does. “Favorites” is bland and doesn’t really define the feature or what it does. “…a favorite what?”

I find it mildly disconcerting that the sites I happen to save within Microsoft Internet Explorer aren’t necessarily my favorite sites, yet the browser deems them as such. The nerve!

I recently wrote this for a former co-worker’s friend, who is Vietnamese. The friend had insisted upon using the present perfect tense in instances where the simple past tense would have been more appropriate.

Think of “perfect” as meaning “complete”: that is, the action being described has been completed, or will be completed.

People typically use the perfect tense when the action they are describing has some relevance to the present moment. Perfect tense also lends a sense of “immediacy” to the verb phrase and gives the impression that either an action has been completed recently or that the action is intrinsically linked to the current moment.

For example, notice the distinction between
Simple Past tense: I studied for my test.
and
Present perfect tense: I have studied for my test.
The latter phrase gives the impression that the studying has recently taken place and that you are prepared for the test. The former phrase is ambiguous because is gives no clue to when the studying took place or if you are finished studying.

Another example:
Simple Past tense: I embarked on a long journey.
and
Present perfect tense: I have embarked on a long journey.
The latter phrase gives the impression that you are still on the journey. The former phrase is ambiguous, because it can mean something that happened in the distant past: “I was 16 years old when I left home. I embarked on a long journey and sailed to Spain…” In that context, you wouldn’t say “I have embarked on a long journey…” because the action is not immediate and has no direct relevance to the present moment.

For more information:

• http://www.eclecticenglish.com/grammar/PresentPerfect1A.html
• http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/gslj/perfecttenses.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_aspect

Now I know that I’m a true Wikipedia addict: I created an account on the Spanish Wikipedia to help out with music and album categorization. I took Spanish for two years in high school, but I can hardly say that I know the language. This should be muy interesante.

Why are there about 441,000 hits on Google for the phrase “riddle me this“, but absolutely no results for the likely answer, “I riddled him that“?

Amazon.com’s wishlist goes German on me… It’s funny that the other options aren’t in German, only the first, translated as “I must have.” Amazon does have a German site, so there must be a cross-pollination thing going on or something.

Lennon starts off the song with “If I fell in love with you…” Fell in this context is incorrect. He had two choices — he could have used the subjunctive mood: “If I were to fall in love…” or the implied future tense: “If I fall in love…” He chose the simple past tense — when coupled with “If”, it seems as if John is uncertain about whether or not he fell. Not the intended meaning, I’m sure.

The implied future tense of “If I fall in love…” make the most sense, both grammatically and rhythmically. Furthermore, it parallels the second and third verses, which start with the implied future tenses of “If I give my heart…” and “If I trust in you…”, respectively.

Many inconsistencies abound in the last verse:

So I hope you see that I
would love to love you
And that she will cry
when she learns we are two
If I fell in love with you

He uses the explicit future tense “will cry” with the past tense “If I fell”. Shouldn’t it be “..she will cry… if I fall in love”? The listener knows that John has already fallen in love with this new girl. But he has to temper his emotions and not reveal his new love to said girl. “If I fall in love…” would have made a good improvement, but “When I fall in love…” would have been the kicker, as would “When I give my heart to you…”, and “When I trust in you…” This makes sense because John predicts that “she will cry when she learns we are two.” Notice he said “when” and not “if”. Choose either the hypothetical “if” or the inevitable “when” and use it consistently throughout the song.

The subjunctive mood is not limited to the hypothetical. For instance, the clauses “it is important that you tell the truth” and “I suggest that we open the windows” express the subjunctive mood in the subordinate clauses. The subjunctive mood is still used frequently, albeit obliviously.

Hypothetical subjunctives are necessary to delineate from the past tenses of verbs. For instance, the If-clause “if I were a carpenter” expresses the hypothetical, while the If-clause “if I was a carpenter” expresses uncertainty about the past.

The Bedford Handbook notes that “in the subjunctive mood, there is only one past-tense form of be: were (never was).” (342) Bedford also acknowledges that the subjunctive “causes problems for writers” (342) (because at first, they don’t appear grammatical), is used less often than indicative or imperative moods (341), and was “once more widely used.” (343)

Examples of subjunctive mood

Source: Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook - sixth edition. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002.