Which of the following is grammatically correct?

Question

Please answer with an explanation if possible and applicable.
1. It's about time that he buys some furniture.
2. It's about time that he bought some furniture.

Answer 1

2. is correct. It's about time that he bought some furniture.
I can't remember the rule now (probably to do with subjunctive or conjunctive moods but don't quote me on that!) but I know this is correct.

Answer 2

It has to be the second one if he recently made the furniture purchase.

The first is more like a part of a sentence in which you are complaining that he should get going on his furniture purchase. It is almost like it should end with "..because I am tired of sitting on the floor when I visit." Even with that additional phrase the word "buys" sticks in my throat.

Answer 3

I believe it's #2, because its past tense, you're making a statement about him having purchased furniture. The first sentence sounds like it's a fragment, like it would need a reason why you would be saying he needed to buy new furniture.

Answer 4

Both are grammatically incorrect. Corrections
Present tense: 1. It's about time he buys some furniture
Past tense 2. It's about time he bought some furniture.

You don't need the helping verb "that" in either case.

Answer 5

Man, I honestly think they're both wrong. I think the correct answer should be "It's about time that he BUY some furniture."

#2 sounds the most correct because it's how most people say it, but that doesn't make it correct. I keep replaying my 9th grade English lesson over and over in my head: "I wish I WERE an Oscar Meyer wiener, not I wish I WAS an Oscar Meyer wiener."

Answer 6

2. It's about time that he bought some furniture.

This is correct, because you are mixing your tenses if you say "It's about time that he buys some furniture."

Answer 7

2 is the proper grammatical sentence...I think!

Answer 8

the 2nd