Grammar experts, please help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted at 21:54 and I think BECOME is best under most circumstances if the programs still aren't available.

But just for the sake of argument, and only for those of you who like arguing about grammar: what if "they" used to be interested in the programs on the condition that the programs became available by some date in the past, but now things have changed and they're no longer interested? As in, "I expressed a desire to take Beatles Studies if the program became available in my college, but it never did before I graduated."

Not to stir up trouble or anything!

That would need to:

"I expressed a desire to take Beatles Studies if the program were to become available, but it hadn't before I graduated."

[Anonymous]

21:54 again. You don't think "became" handles the past subjunctive adequately, without having to change to "were to become"?

And I confess, I'm not up on the past subjective for every single verb such as "to become." So feel free to set me straight on this...!

[Anonymous]

AARRGGHH! It's BECOME.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I posted at 21:54 and I think BECOME is best under most circumstances if the programs still aren't available.

But just for the sake of argument, and only for those of you who like arguing about grammar: what if "they" used to be interested in the programs on the condition that the programs became available by some date in the past, but now things have changed and they're no longer interested? As in, "I expressed a desire to take Beatles Studies if the program became available in my college, but it never did before I graduated."

Not to stir up trouble or anything!

That would need to:

"I expressed a desire to take Beatles Studies if the program were to become available, but it hadn't before I graduated."

Actually, no: "I expressed a desire to take Beatles Studies if the program were to have become available, but it hadn't before I graduated."

[Anonymous]

Well, do they STILL express a desire? If so (present continuous), then the sentence should read:

They EXPRESS a desire to apply once programs BECOME available.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, do they STILL express a desire? If so (present continuous), then the sentence should read:

They EXPRESS a desire to apply once programs BECOME available.

Right, it's BECOME in that case. We've moved on to another issue: what if they used to have a desire, but now they're in grad school or moved to Asia or something, and they no longer have that desire.

[Anonymous]

I agree that you should reword the sentence to make it clearer. No matter which you choose, it still isn't clear!