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Messages - Messages about Grammar (Subjunctive)

Jakhongir | 7.03.16

I was given this question in a test: I assured him that he ... pneumonia. a)should get b)would get c)get d)gets. I chose the b. But my English teacher finds it wrong. Please, could you tell the correct answer?

Answer:

Your example can be understood in two ways. In the sentence "I assured him that he would get pneumonia", "would get" is future in the past used according to the rules of the sequence of tenses; so the answer b) is correct. (See "Sequence of Tenses" and "Sequence of Tenses in Reported Speech" in the section Grammar.)

If the construction in your example is regarded as expressing strong expectation / strong probability (expressed by the modal verb "should"), then the answer a) is correct. I wouldn't use such a sentence with "should" (as in your example), but sentences like "He assured her that it should not occur again; She assured him that she should be fine" are quite possible. (See "Strong Probability" in the section Grammar.)

Maybe you misunderstood something in your test or in its task? Maybe there was more context? Discuss your test with your teacher.

Note: You sent your message to Messages about Grammar (Subjunctive). I assume that you meant that "should get" and "would get" are in the subjunctive in your example. The use of "should" and "would" in the subjunctive is described in the subsection Subjunctive Mood in the section Grammar and in the answers to visitors' questions in the subsection Messages about Grammar (Subjunctive).