[aur-general] voting period: Brad Fanella

[PyroPeter]

On 09/07/2010 09:30 PM, Xyne wrote:
> Using "have":
> "Had the other TUs not cared, they would have abstained."
> "If the other TUs hadn't cared, ..."
>
> Compare:
> "Had I not been there, I would have been elsewhere."
> "If I hadn't been there, ..."
>
>
> Using "do":
> "If they didn't care, they would have abstained".
>
> Compare:
> "If I didn't know better, I would call him an idiot."
>
>
> For a bit of logical completeness:
> Formulations such as "Did they not care, ..." might be correct in a strict
> sense but they would sound very wrong to most speakers, as though it were a
> question. "Cared they not, ..." might also be correct but it sounds archaic and
> unnatural (even though I would prefer it if we could drop the silly use of the
> auxiliary verb "do"... and re-introduce "thou" to match "du" and "tu" while
> we're at it).
>
> "Cared thou not, thou would have abstained." ;)

Thanks for this comprehensive reply.
According to wikipedia, "thou" is the 2nd person singular pronoun,
and the plural form would be "Cared ye not, ye would have abstained."

Regards, PyroPeter
-- 
freenode/pyropeter                          "12:50 - Ich drücke Return."