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Contraposition Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
conditional
Why is the conditional used instead of the simple past(I expected) or the present(I expect)?
Top answer
This is not a very easy question to answer. I would say that "would have expected" gives a feel of counterfactuality to reflect the fact that he has not actually been caught. How this translates to a specific implied conditional, such as "If I didn't know that he hadn't been caught, I would have expected him to be caught", may be debatable.
- This is not a very easy question to answer.
- I would say that "would have expected" gives a feel of counterfactuality to reflect the fact that he has not actually been caught.
- How this translates to a specific implied conditional, such as "If I didn't know that he hadn't been caught, I would have expected him to be caught", may be debatable.
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1 Answers
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This is not a very easy question to answer. I would say that "would have expected" gives a feel of counterfactuality to reflect the fact that he has not actually been caught. How this translates to a specific implied conditional, such as "If I didn't know that he hadn't been caught, I would have expected him to be caught", may be debatable.
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