[General] Usage of "... was to be ... "

[Farbauti]

Hello Forum,

I have found the following fragment in a fairy-tale book

" (...) And she thought it was very dangerous to have the mallet there, for she said to herself: 'Suppose him an me was to be married, and we was to have a son, (...) "

As you can assume I have a problem with the bolded parts. Maybe it is ancient speak, because the fairy-tale is from the 19th century. I searched in the Internet and found explanations like "it can express futurity in the past". But for the woman who is talking it isn't the past, is it?

An alternative for the sentence could be 'Suppose him and me would be married (..)', couldn't it?

Thank you for your help

 

[Rover_KE]

The woman was talking to herself in her own dialect, and didn't care about using ungrammatical English.

In standard English it would be 'Suppose he and I were to be married, and we were to have a son...'

 

[Boris Tatarenko]

Not a teacher nor a native speaker.

I'm reading "Gulliver's travels" and I come across with such sentences every page. I bet it's because our books were written many centuries ago.

 

[Farbauti]

Hello,

"(...) would be married (...)" isn't correct?

 

[Raymott]

"(...) would be married (...)" isn't correct?

No, "Suppose he and I would be married" would not be right - at least in BrE and AusE - unless it were part of a conditional statement such as, "Suppose he and I would be married if I became pregnant."

 

[Farbauti]

One more question

By the way I am often in trouble with the verb 'suppose', I think it is used here within the meaning of "Assume him and me was/were to be married (..)". Right?

Now my question. Is it possible to omit the two words "to" and "be", I mean: "Suppose him an me were married, (...)"

I googled that and a similar sentence and I got a couple of results, but that does not necessarily mean anything.

Thank you for your help

 

[Raymott]

You can't omit "to be" and have it mean the same thing.
"Suppose he and I were married." = "Suppose we are married now".
"Suppose he and I were to be married." = "Suppose that we planned to get married."
Yes, you understand 'suppose'. You are entertaining a hypothetical proposition.

 

[Farbauti]

Hello Raymott,

thanks a lot now it is clear to me!

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello Raymott.

Thanks a lot. Now it is clear to me!

Don't forget to use correct capitalisation and punctuation in all your posts.

 

[Rover_KE]

Also, Farbauti, there is no need to write a new post to say Thank you. Simply click the Thank button on any posts you find helpful. It means that we don't have to open the thread again to read your new post and then find that it doesn't include any new information or an additional question.

It saves everybody's time.