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Consider the below sentence.

It is time you cleaned your room.

Here, the act of cleaning is a future event: it has not yet happened, but the implication is that it is going to happen. And yet, the verb 'clean' is here in its preterite form: 'cleaned'. Why is this so? Surely the sentence should read 'It is time you clean your room'?

Eric
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3 Answers3

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Grammarian explains

IT'S (HIGH) TIME + PAST SUBJUNCTIVE

It's (high) time + past subjunctive expresses that something should be done and that it is already a bit late:

  • It's time you went to bed. You'll have to get up early tomorrow.

Cambridge does not call it past subjunctive, but past verb.

CAGEL (p. 1004) says about the construction IT BE TIME:

  • (i) It is time [you were in bed]. [present state]
  • (ii) It is time [ we repainted the house]. [immediate future occurrence]

Here, [i] is straightforwardly counterfactual: "You aren't in bed but you should be". Example [ii] entails that the situation is not yet in progress: "We aren't repainting the house, but should do so". A perfect, as in

  • It is time you had finished it,

is interpreted as a modally remote version of the present perfect: "You haven't finished but should have done".

If you are too unfamiliar with this tense use, you can go around it by saying

It is time to clean your room.

Only that in this sentence, the agent of the action of cleaning becomes ambiguous: it can be you, we, they..., depending on context. Also, you lose the warning tone of the mom-speak :)

fev
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  • Is there any reason to choose It is time you had finished it over It is time you finished it? – listeneva Oct 11 '22 at 02:00
  • With "had finished" there is a connotation that it is too late to do it. So if you want to express that meaning you can use "had finished". If there is still possibility to finish it and you probable will than use "finished". – fev Oct 11 '22 at 06:30
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It may help to consider the implications of this common construct. There is an implied or hidden reference to a supposed or desirable past event).

It is time you cleaned your room (It is a time when you should already have cleaned your room)

It is time we went (It is a time when we should already have gone).

These are all slightly different from the plain statements:

It is time to clean your room. (The cleaning should start now or soon)

It is time for us to go. (Now or soon, we should leave)

Finally:

I might have started this answer with :
It is time to resolve this question (I am starting to resolve it)

But would only have written
It is time this question was resolved (It is a time when we should by now have resolved this question)
if I felt it had been active for too long.

Anton
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It is a common way of speaking. It is like saying:

By this point in time, cleaning your room should be a PAST action performed by you; but it is not, so get on it!

Dan
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