JANUARY 12, 2009 | It's about time he came/he should come
Q: Which is more correct - "It's about time he came" or "It's about time he should come"?
SITUATION # 1: Something just happened. You've been waiting for it to happen for a long time. You would say "It's about time that happened!", "It's about time he came!", "It's about time he was fired!". All of these examples, including the one in the question, refer to something that just happened and that you had been expecting to happen for some time. SITUATION # 2: Something has NOT happened, but you're waiting for it to happen, and you've been waiting for a long time. You would ALSO say "It's about time he came!", "It's about time he was fired!", etc... the "past tense" here is actually the SUBJUNCTIVE VERB TENSE, which is not very often used in English, but can be used in situations such as these. To answer your question, some native speakers also use SHOULD + the PRESENT TENSE in this situation: "It's about time he should get back to work" (It's about time he got back to work), "It's about time he should tell her" (It's about time he called her), etc., but in our opinion, you should use EITHER SHOULD ("You should call her") OR "IT'S ABOUT TIME" + the SUBJUNCTIVE ("It's about time you called her.")
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