5.5.1.2.2. It is necessary to point out that when the verb in the object clause is affirmative in English, it is negative in Russian and vice versa.

I wish I had known you then. (=It's a pity I didn't know you then.)

I felt rather sick. I wished I had not known. I wished I had not been there to see. (=It's a pity I came to know. It's a pity I was there.)

I wish I didn't have to go to work today. (=It's a pity I have to go to work today.)

5.5.1.2.3. To express a hardly realizable wish the present tense of subjunctive II of a modal verb may be used in these object clauses.

"I wish we could go home." "I wish the air were cooler. I wish the rain would come."

On the desk were the stamp albums Mr Henderson had looted of their rarities. Wishing he could have seen these rare stamps that were beyond the reach of any but the wealthiest collectors, Andy picked a book from the shelf and made himself look through it.

The choice of the modal verb is determined by meaning, by the attitude of the speaker towards the actions expressed in the sentence. It is not always necessary to translate the modal verb into Russian.

Don't cry too much, poor Arabella. She only won't see you, because she says you don't nurse her as well as I do. It's no pleasure to me to sit up all night. I wish you might do it instead. Well, sick people have these fancies, and must be humored.

I wish I didn't have to go to work today.

I wish you could have seen the faces of the Misses Blackbrook when Captain Rawdon selected me for a partner!

I wish people would stop hunting animals for sport.

5.5.1.3. Both tenses of subjunctive II are used in adverbial clauses of comparison. The tenses are used relatively.

He looked at the icy thunder-rain as if it were the end of the world.

he twins were examining Ralph curiously, as though they were seeing him for the first time.

Rosemary put up her face quietly to be kissed. He looked at her for a moment as if he didn't understand. "I've loved you so – " As if it had been for years. She was weeping a little now.

5.5.1.3.1. The same rules hold good for predicative clauses introduced by as if and as though.

It looks as though there were complete incompatibility of temper between you. It's much better that you should have found it out before marriage.

Ellery related what he had found. The young visitor from Albany looked as if he might faint.

The place was ghastly, somehow. It was as if violence had visited it in the midst of a cloistered silence.

When Pascale saw the kitchen, she felt as though she had been punched in the stomach, and all she could do was groan.

5.5.2. Subjunctive II and the conditional mood in complex sentences.

5.5.2.1. In a complex sentence with a subordinate clause of unreal condition subjunctive II is used in the clause of condition and the conditional mood is used in the principal clause.

The factory and the company are owned and run by him alone. He is chairman and managing director, sole shareholder and paymaster. If he went, the entire project would collapse.

I had been receiving invalidity benefit for 10 years when it was renamed incapacity benefit last year. What effect will it have when I reach 65 years of age? Also what would I have received if it remained invalidity benefit?

It would hardly seem justified in a survey like the present one to dwell on a method as abstract as Patterson's, were it not for the supreme importance which this method has now assumed in the analysis of macromolecular structures.

Had he suspected what was in store for her, he would never have asked her to come.

The tenses are used absolutely and need not be the same in both parts of the sentence.

Even in Japan there have been a series of failures – and there would be more if the banks came clean about the true value of their assets. In Britain, there have been two collapses.

You went to the banks and paid ruinous interest, waited hat in hand like a beggar. But if you had come to me, my purse would have been yours. If you had come to me for justice those scum who ruined your daughter would be weeping bitter tears this day. If by some misfortune an honest man like yourself made enemies they would become me enemies and then, believe me, they would fear you.

That's what we fought Hitler for. If Hitler had had things his way, we'd just be slaves now.

5.5.2.1.1. The present tense of subjunctive II of a modal verb may be used in any or both parts of this complex sentence. The choice of the modal verb is determined by meaning, by the attitude of the speaker towards the actions expressed in the sentence.

Joe Patroni grinned. "If I were him, I might feel the same way.

If mere parsimony could have made a man rich, Sir Pitt Crawley might have become very wealthy.

If the biochemist could explain this – and, incidentally nobody has yet done so – then we would have the key to one of the most important physiological processes for which proteins are responsible.

You have more brains than half the shire; if merit had its reward you ought to be a duchess.

With reference to director's dealing in their own shares, it would be much appreciated if you would advise me of the name and address of the publication which monitors these transactions.