This paper illustrates how corpus research can inform language teachers and textbook
writers about contemporary usage. This study provides evidence from various corpora,
including a collection of language practice books and textbooks, and electronic
databases that contain contemporary language data on how English is actually used.
The data found in the electronic databases suggest that prescriptive teaching about
the incorrectness of indicative was for hypothetical meaning in some
contemporary English teaching books used in Hong Kong is not well founded. On the
other hand, the data also reveal that subjunctive were is not dying and
persists in writing, particularly in some idiomatic expressions.
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