English has a subjunctive. I learned that fact the morning I taught it. I knew French had one and suspected Irish did, but hadn’t noticed its moody fingerprints on my native language. It turned out I didn’t know because the English subjunctive required phrasing I would never use. Apparently, you didn’t say: ‘What if I was attracted to her.’ You said: ‘What if I were.’ You deployed the subjunctive for the less-than-factual. If I avoided it, did that mean I only said true things? Or since I didn’t section off the imaginary, perhaps everything I said was just a wish or a feeling. And maybe I
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