Usage of the future subjunctive

In the Wikipedia article about the subjunctive mood, I read that the future subjunctive of own for the first person singular is I were to own.

In which situations is the future subjunctive used in English?

Answer

I really wouldn’t call that a future subjunctive. It’s merely a periphrastic construct that emphasizes the irregular were so that its counter factuality comes through more strongly. It’s actually a past subjunctive form. Witness:

1. If I were you, I wouldn’t do that.


2. If I had a ball, I’d throw it to your dog.


3. If I ate like that, I’d die.


4. If I were to eat like that, I’d die.

As you see, there’s no difference between the last two entries. Therefore, there is no future subjunctive here at all.

Compare this with languages that do have a future subjunctive:

• Por donde fueres, haz lo que vieres. Spanish for “Wherever you go, do as you see.” (When in Rome...)


• Aunque él me quitare la vida, en él confiaré. Spanish for Job 3:3, “Though He should take my life, in Him shall I trust.”


• Não entraremos se falarmos assim. Portuguese for “We won’t get in if we talk like that.”


• Se eu estiver cansado não vou ao cinema. Portuguese for “If I’m tired I won’t go to the cinema.”


• Logo que eles chegarem, nós começaremos a comer. Portuguese for “We’ll start eating as soon as they get here.”


• Quando chegares, liga para o escritório. Portuguese for “Once you arrive, call the office.”

By the way, the supposedly future subjunctive case from English would be simply this in Spanish:

• Si comiese así, me moriría. Spanish for “If I ate like that, I’d die.”

The first clause is in the past subjunctive and the second is in the conditional.

I’ve never before heard English described as somehow having a future subjunctive: would that it were so! I submit that that particular Wikipedia page has simply gotten it wrong.