From my English classes I remember the rule that when you are expressing a condition with words like if, you must use the subjunctive mood in the subordinate clause, and the conditional in the main clause.
For example:
If I had more free time, I would go to the gym more often.
If I were you, I wouldn't pay too much attention to them.
The only exception to this rule (as far as I know) are polite requests like:
It would be nice if you would help me in the kitchen.
On the other hand, I recently found the following sentence in a book written by an American author:
If I would make a point of going to sit down with a historian, or
a mathematician in order to broaden my mind, I'd be neglecting
my job in a way.
In this case, both clauses are in the conditional but, according to the rules I have learnt in school, I would rather have written:
If I made a point of going to sit down with a historian …
So I am a bit confused as to when one should use the subjunctive versus the conditional. Why does the author of the book write "If I would make a point of…"? Is there a difference in meaning or are "made" and "would make" interchangeable here?
(What confuses me even more is that I live in Germany where I often hear people using the conditional instead of the subjunctive when speaking in English, possibly because German has only the subjunctive / Konjunktiv mood: so it is difficult for me to tell if what I hear is a mistake or a proper use of the English conditional.)
Best Answer
English does not have a subjunctive mood, nor a conditional mood.
Despite what you may have been told in school; if you've been misled, I'm sorry about that.
English does have a lot of modal auxiliaries, some of which have meanings (but not grammar)
that reminds scholars of some of the uses of subjunctive and conditional moods in
languages that have them, like Latin or Sanskrit.
But there is no subjunctive, no conditional, and no future tense in English. The constructions that are sometimes given these names are all uses of modal auxiliary verbs, with syntax to match.
This has been explained over and over again, but it's always surprising the first time.
Here are some answers to questions about the so-called "subjunctive" in English.
As you can see, it doesn't work quite the way you have been taught.