By the middle of the century, revered usage writers in Britain such as Eric Partridge and Ernest Gowers were warning of the subjunctive as " a hallmark of officialese" which had " a formal, even pedantic air" .

到本世纪中叶，埃里克·帕特里奇 (Eric Partridge) 和欧内斯特·高尔斯 (Ernest Gowers) 等受人尊敬的英国用法作家警告说，虚拟语气是“官方语言的标志”，具有“正式、甚至迂腐的气息”。