"He is sleeping". Sleeping is an action verb, although there would be little action for the spectator to behold, any more than with 'he is thinking' or 'he is dreaming'. All intransitive. Any offers for action verbs followed by direct objects where the spectator would not notice anything happening (excluding twitching, grunting etc as subsidiary, accompanying actions). Maybe "I dreamed a dream...", for example. OK, Verya?

I have found this one in the archives: I quote: "English has also been influenced by the French. The French also make an exception, saying "c'est moi": It's me. The French use this construction only in the first person singular. Thus "It's me" is correct, yet "It's him" is less preferred that "It's he"."
The contributor was in error:
'C'est moi, c'est toi, c'est lui' for ...me...you...him. All disjunctive, not just first person, 'c'est nous, c'est vous, c'est eux' for ...us...you...them plural.

Here is another ancient entry: "Oh my goodness...Folks, it's called a predicate nominative, and in the sentence, "It is I," there are two of them. "It" is a subject, and "I" is a subject. They are set equal to each other with the verb "to be.""

Now, I say the subject is "It" and "is" is the copulative verb. "I" or "me" or whatever is the complement, completing the sense of the S+V here, as an object would with a transitive verb.

It is suggested "Oh, and perhaps it would help if we tried to avoid terms like "nominative" when discussing English. Not one English noun possesses a nominative form.

The only five words in modern English that can generally considered "true nominatives" are I, he, she, we and they." End quote.

Now, that business about "It is I". The French would never say "C'est-je". They use the disjunctive pronoun "moi" for these things.

Pretentious?! Moi?!

Et toi!?

The best we can do is "me" - who said that? - Me! (technically I did, but ...)

Uh, so we have nominatives in English after all, hey? Not to mention "who" and "whom" difference. I use it myself to discuss subject/object difference. Helpful in learning Latin/Greek/German/Russian for starters, and Indo-European languages in general, Pali for example. I'd keep using the term, if that's okay with you.

Spiceman had some thoughts on April 24:

""It is high time you go to bed." I say is more bossy, "you went" is subjunctive, allowing space for a polite bit of choice, however insincere.

"I would prefer that you don't come with me." (rather is not a verb, you say) -I say 'would' is a verb; rather is an adverb, makes no difference, Spiceman. 'I would rather' is using an antique verb 'would' which means 'want' so the expression is wholly correct and means 'prefer' but just sounds a wee bit less prissy.
"I wish that bank accounts would come with interest-free loans attached." - 'came' is present subjunctive (looks like past indicative) because they don't come that way, so we are talking about a situation which does not obtain. 'Would come' suggests a future state of things, 'came' talks of the current state.

You, Spiceman, say (I quote): "Those sentences you submitted would fall into the 'common usage' column. We hear usage like that regularly and so it sounds correct, even though it isn't." Well, Spiceman, actually, it is correct.

So, jayles

"It is high time you went to bed" is not past, but suggests that great though the plan may be in your mind, it is conceivable that your addressee will not go to bed, so this is subjunctive, expressing the doubt about the outcome.
"I would rather that you didn't come with me". Is subjunctive, as you are talking about an act (come) which you hope or think won't happen.
"I wish that bank accounts came with interest-free loans attached". Is subjunctive because you are discussing things which don't happen.

That is why these sentences use a "past" tense when talking about the present/future.

It is not a past tense at all, each case is a subjunctive, describing a verb action which cannot happen, or is not happening, or you don't want to happen, or you don't think will, or you have doubts, will happen. The English subjunctive verb has the same form, usually, as the past tense of that verb. The exception is "be", the present subjunctive of 'be', used for remote future conditions, as eg "if it be your choice" refers to the future when you must make your decision and I don't know, or wish to convey my uncertainty about your choice. "If it is your choice" - indicative - sounds as if you think the choice is already made, so present tense (not oddly, as the choice stands now).

Hey, where's the Lochgelly?

Hey, Hairy Scot:
"the Scots tend to be more grammatically correct than the English.
If that is a fact then it is almost certainly due to those hard-assed old pedants who beat the language into us with the help of the major product of Lochgelly!" - would that be the 'strap' then, or the malt? I have tasted them both, and know which I prefer!

Now, once again, children: the subjunctive "if I were you"; "I would prefer that you did not come..." are for situations where the action discussed cannot happen or you do not suppose or wish would happen:

"If you have worked hard you will pass your exams" means maybe you have worked hard and will pass ... - open condition, possible, indicative verbs;

"If you worked hard you would pass your exams" means you aren't, or I think you won't, so I think you won't pass ...- closed condition (in my opinion) so I use the subjunctive which looks like the past but it isn't because you could use this way of putting it weeks before the exams while there is still time to mend your ways, but I am phrasing it in such a way as to suggest that you are not, in my view, going to work hard. How else can such - not all that subtle, after all, - nuances of meaning be conveyed if one cannot cope with the subjunctive?

"If you had/were to have worked hard you would have passed" means you didn't work and you didn't pass. Subjunctive because we are discussing things which were never done or never happened but might have been. I challenge anyone to express this message without using the subjunctive.

Now, and this is the crunch: since we must sometimes use the subjunctive, it exists, and as it exists we should use it when it is appropriate, that is, whenever we are discussing things which cannot, do or did not happen, and also to convey the view that what we would like to happen, or to have happened, won't or didn't, although it might.

Oh, come on: does all that really do your head in? Perhaps a wee touch of the Lochgelly ...

45 years ago, one night, my housemaster (teacher person in a boarding school) saw a little red light up there on the 5th floor as he returned from a night out on the town."Who rat smokin' oop tha?" he called. The response came back " It is I " and the culprit was obvious: it was I! I was a pedant then, and consequently suffered for my virtuosity.

That will learn you to get your grammar right! 6 (strokes of the cane) of the best.

In future say "It is me" and if the pedants complain, say you are using the pronoun disjunctively, which is a) true and b) will shut the buggers up.

An excellent brief introduction to the settlers of the eastern seaboard of the USA in the early 17th century. Thank you for that. Hellenistic Egypt? Pharoahs before Ptolemy, Alexander's general whom he made king of Egypt, thereafter kings, and the last Queen, Cleopatra. Yes, incest all the vogue because no one else was of high enough rank to match, so seen as the only way forward.

What has all this to do with plead and pled and pleaded? And by the way, the folk down at the pub ('bar') next door are waiting with baited breath (well, not really) to hear if the folks down Alabamy way say "glided" or "glid", like the man with the wings and the cardboard boxes.

If you say it is glid then I shall book my tickets on the Tuscaloosa choo-choo and come on over to find out if it's true.

"Philadelphia" comes from a Greek phrase, but I think that it might refer to something in Egypt, you say.

'phil-' love, as in 'bibliophile, francophile, etc. 'delph-' as in brother, eg "Adelphi". Is not Philadelphia well known as the city of brotherly love? I am sure a wee peek at Google will dispel or confirm any suspicions of its roots coming from Alexandrine Egypt during the Hellenistic period. More likely to be a modern construct to do with puritan idealists coming to make a fresh, clean start in the New World two thousand years later, in the 17th century, I suspect. I may well look it up on google if I remember after the repeat of 'Dallas' which starts in a few minutes.

""We have a pharmaceutical company in the U.S. that uses the phrase "imagine you" several times within 30 seconds. Natually, "imagine yourself" is needed."" needs some work upon it:
"We have a pharmaceutical company in the U.S. which uses the phrase "imagine you" ...

Now, do you mean, "Imagine that you .." with the "that" elided, as in "imagine you were a turnip ...".