Alexander the Great

[vikram4689]

This sentence is from SC Flash Cards :

Alexander the Great remarked that conquering foreign states couldn’t compare to the vanquishing of his enemies at home.

Correct sentence Given is : Alexander the Great remarked that
conquering foreign states couldn’t compare to vanquishing
his enemies at home.

But this sentence fails to consider that subjunctive rule. Though i am not able to form the sentence. Please help

[singh.181]

According to me, the sentence needs a "be" after "coudn't".

Alexander the Great remarked that
conquering foreign states couldn’t be compare to vanquishing
his enemies at home.

[vikram4689]

Experts Please help, i have posted 4 queries regarding SC Flash Cards

[tim]

sorry singh, that is incorrect. vikram, the more you reply to your own posts the farther back in line they get pushed. and it is absolutely unreasonable for you to expect us to respond to your posts within three hours of posting..

as for your question, i noticed that the sentence also fails to consider the rule about noun modifiers touching the noun they modify. but that's because this rule is totally irrelevant to the sentence, as is the subjunctive rule. please understand that not every SC explanation needs to address every rule in the book..

[vikram4689]

Sorry Tim..

Could not understand why subjunctive rule is not required in this case. Can you guide me as how to decide where the rule should be applied.

[tim]

no. the burden of proof is on you to explain why you think the subjunctive rule is relevant..

[vikram4689]

There are some words such as demand,order,mandate,remark etc. which when followed by "that", subjunctive rule should be applied and according to subjunctive rule "word + that" should be followed by
1) 1st form of verb ( e.g. pay,eat,conquer ) OR
2) be + 3rd form of verb (e.g. be paid)

E.g. Principal ordered that students pay the fee by tomorrow.
OR
Principal ordered that the fee be paid by student by tomorrow

[tim]

wonderful. you've correctly identified situations where we need to use the subjunctive rule. now it should be easy to see why you DON'T need to consider it here.. :)

[vikram4689]

could not connect the dots, according to rule i stated we have remarked here and rule should be applied

[tim]

sorry, you're not going to get any help until you explain WHY you think the rule needs to be applied in this case. otherwise you are going to end up wasting a lot of time applying every single rule to every single situation when it is not necessary..

[vikram4689]

I stated the rule and according to that rule whenever "remark" is used that rule should be applied. You also acknowledged that rule but you are saying that here rule should not be applied. I have already explained why i feel it should be applied.......

[tim]

ah, now i see the problem. there is no such rule. you are not required to invoke the subjunctive anytime you see the word "remark"..