'as hard' vs 'that hard'

Question

Could someone tell me please if these are both correct and they mean the same:" If I had known the news, I wouldn't work as hard"" If I had known the news, I wouldn't work that hard"

Wordsinmotion · Accepted Answer

In the context of the sentence you have given, I think both do mean the same and are correct. However, I would have said" If I had known the news, I wouldn't have worked as hard" " If I had known the news, I wouldn't  have worked that hard"

Grammarfreak · Answer

Pooyan" If I had known the news, I wouldn't work as hard"" If I had known the news, I wouldn't work that hard"

Both are not grammatical conditionals. The " If I had+ past participle "construction is a precursor to a 3rd conditional context. In this application, the main clause must be " I would have + past participle ". What you had is an illegal 3rd conditional.

2nd cond: If I knew all the facts I would not agree with his proposal
3rd cond: If I had known all the facts, I wouldn't have agreed with his proposal.

Pooyan · Answer

We call these mixed conditionals, right? Could you please check the very first examples on this page: http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/mixedconditional.html

Fivejedjon · Answer

PooyanWe call these mixed conditionals, right?

"If I had known the news, I wouldn't work as hard."

This suggests that a future or on-going hypothetical non-working is dependent on a counterfactual past knowing. That doesn't work.

This would be possible:

"If I had known the news, I wouldn't be working so hard."

At the time of speaking, the speaker is working hard, and so a counterfactual hypothesis is possible.

Pooyan · Answer

Thanks. There is an example in the link I sent above:

"If Darren hadn't wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas, he would go to Mexico with us next month. "
But Darren wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas and he won't go to Mexico with us next month.

This sounds Ok?

Fivejedjon · Answer

PooyanThanks. There is an example in the link I sent above:"If Darren hadn't wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas, he would go to Mexico with us next month. "But Darren wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas and he won't go to Mexico with us next month.This sounds Ok?

Not really, in my opinion.

'He would do something' in a a conditional sentence implies
1. a possible future situation. The possibility may be so remote as to be almost impossible to imagine, but the theoretical possibility exists - "If the sun exploded tomorrow, scientists would be rather surprised."
2. a counterfactual present or ongoing situation - "If my father were alive, he'd be very unhappy about my divorce"

We'd probably use one of the following for your Darren/Las Vegas situation.
"If Darren hadn't wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas, he would be going to Mexico with us next month." He isn't going - progressive form for an arrangement for the future.
"If Darren hadn't wasted his Christmas bonus gambling in Las Vegas, he would have gone to Mexico with us next month." The idea seem to be something like '... he would have been in a position to go ...". This use of a counterfactual (third conditional) construction for a future situation does not fit conveniently into the 'rules' we usually see, but it is possible.

Pooyan · Answer

Thanks for your reply.

Back to my original question, I'm looking for the difference between 'as + adjective' and 'that + adjective' in some situations, for example:

"I don't want him work as hard"
"I don't want him work that hard"

or

"I can't run as fast"
"I can't run that fast"

Are they both idiomatic and do they mean the same?

Grammarfreak · Answer

Conditionals, particularly 2 and 3 are the most complex and problematic with learners among all the grammar rule because of the possible combinations of these elements:
User's interpretation of the situation
Possibility
Factual situation
Counter factual situation
present
past present
If I remember correctly, there was a long and heated discussion on the same topic few month ago about when and where mixed conditional is allowed, or grammatically illegal.

'as hard' vs 'that hard'

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