about "it's time you sold that old car" - the story continues

[Hegamonia]

It's about time you sold that old car."

The sentence above could be a reference to either the past or the future.
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To me, if you change that sentence to

- "It's about time you sell that old car."

then it is clear that the car has not been sold yet, but the the speaker thinks it is advisable to do so soon.

So, if I want to emphasize that the person has not sold the car yet but I want him to do so, I find it advisable, the best and perhaps right choice is the second example?
"It's about time you sell that old car ..." I do not know if anyone knows Swedish, but it is from this language that I translated the phrase from and into English. In Swedish the phrase was: "Det är på tiden att du säljer den där gamla bilen och köper en ny."

[Jamie (K)]

I understood the Swedish phrase, but I don't think the English one works the same way.

"It's about time you sold that old car." (It indicates that you should sell the car in the near future.)

"It was about time you sold that old car." (You have sold the car, but you should have done it a long time before you did.)

The problem is that "sold" here is some kind of conditional form, and although it looks like the past, it doesn't really have any tense at all. It's the verb "be" in the first clause that indicates whether the selling happens in the past or future.

Notice that for the future meaning, you can also put it in the subjunctive:

"It's about time you sell that car."
"It's about time he sell that car."

The subjunctive has no verb tense, so it's basically the same situation, where the time reference is determined by the first verb.

Hej så länge!

[Yankee]

Hi Jamie

[Jamie (K)]

[SiCantikManis]

What about: It's high time for you to sell that old car?

Is there any significant difference in meaning? I can't see it.

Many thanks,
Cantik
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[Jamie (K)]

[SiCantikManis]

Just one more:

"It's time for you to get a car (not new)" and "It's time you bought a car".

Is the latter okay? I think people only say the former.

Cantik
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Thou shalt not use yours to make the whole world jealous.

[Jamie (K)]

People say both of them.

[SiCantikManis]

Okay, thanks. You've been very helpful!
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Thou shalt not use yours to make the whole world jealous.

[MrPedantic]

[Jamie (K)]

Actually, MrP, while the present subjunctive is possible in AmE, it sounds a bit awkward to me, and I had to think about it a lot before I decided it was acceptable here. I think that even in AmE the past tense form is definitely preferred.

[Yankee]

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I agree that the past form of the subjunctive would be much more commonly used than the present form in the expression "It's about time that..."

Maybe I'm splitting hairs here, but I wouldn't call the use of the present subjunctive in this phrase awkward. I'd just say that it is used, but that this usage is much less common.
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[Yankee]