Manhattan SC tense & mood question

[rs00010-sdc]

Hi,
I have two questions from Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction, chapter 7 verb tense and mood.

Helen would feel better if she swallowed this pill.

The explanation goes as follows:

swallowed is in the present tense of the hypothetical subjunctive mood.

What is present tense of the hypothetical subjunctive mood? In the book I did not find more information about it. Also, can the correct answer be 'Helen would feel better if she swallow this pill?' Is past tense of swallow necessary?

My another question is

Ethan is unsure what to do tonight: his boss wants that he stay at the office, but his wife insists that he come home for dinner.

The correct answer goes like:

Ethan is unsure what to do tonight: his boss wants him to stay stay at the office, but his wife insists that he come home for dinner.

I think answer should be ...but his wife insists that he be come home...
Why the command subjunctive is not written as 'be come home?'

I would be grateful if somebody helps me. Thanks!

[tim]

i'm not sure what you're asking here. you have the correct answer for both of these because you read it in the book? are you asking whether the book is wrong? the answer is no..

[UtkarshS279]

Hello Tim,

In the statement- Helen may feel better if she would swallow this pill, the correction according to the book is replacing 'would swallow' with 'swallows'.

Is the statement- Helen may feel better if she were to swallow this pill an acceptable construction too?

What is the difference between 'were to swallow' and 'swallows' in this case?

BR,
Utkarsh

[tim]

Helen *might* feel better if she were to swallow this pill.

It's a subtle difference, but "might" goes with "were to swallow" and "may" goes with "swallows". Take a closer look at the section in the strategy guide if you want more information, but your best bet if you don't have an intuition for what goes with what here is to memorize a couple of simple examples like this to help you if you see something similar on the GMAT.

[UtkarshS279]

Helen *might* feel better if she were to swallow this pill.

It's a subtle difference, but "might" goes with "were to swallow" and "may" goes with "swallows". Take a closer look at the section in the strategy guide if you want more information, but your best bet if you don't have an intuition for what goes with what here is to memorize a couple of simple examples like this to help you if you see something similar on the GMAT.

Hi Tim,

Is it because 'might' represents less probability of an event occurring than 'may' does, and hence used in conjunction with 'were to swallow' instead of 'swallow? I looked in the strategy guide but didn't find any rule that clearly delineates the difference.
Could you please shed more light on this issue?

Thanks,
Utkarsh

[tim]

It has more to do with the particular form of subjunctive that is used. Again, that is not nearly as important as knowing a few examples to guide you rather than memorizing some abstract rules. Check out pages 199-200 of the 6th edition SC book for more on this (although not a comprehensive treatment, as evidenced by the lack of any examples with "might").