"Can I please ask if John be removed from all of their subject classrooms?" Is it correct?
I've just got an email with this question above, which made me frown. Since the author is undoubtedly literate, I am wondering if either the author simply missed "can" after "John" ("...if John can be...") or this is some polite way to ask things I'd never heard of yet.
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Answers · 7
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"could I please ask that John be removed....." would be more sensible.
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I could be wrong ! :) And I can quite see what this caused Pablo some concern ; that's never really what we want when we write.
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Ah, interesting detail about "if" sounding more polite in British English. Thanks for providing insight on this.
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"If it be your will ..." We know subjunctive use is declining. But are we really going to sanction its use ...?! :)
Torusan, I'm sure your way is clearer. To my (British English) ear, though, the use of the "if" rather than the "that" here merely makes this a more polite, tentative form of command or request. Of course plenty of us over here barely use the subjunctive at all :) May I sign off "Have a nice day" - or is that too much? :)
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@Michael, I agree about the subjunctive, but with "if", not "that"?
Edited to add: The link is for American English, so yes, it reflects what I said, which is that we would use "that", not "if." I'm curious to see if "if" would be acceptable in British English, because it sounds off in American English.
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