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Anonymous Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Conditionals

Hello,

If you could do x, that would be great.
OR
It would be great, if you could do x.

Can someone please help me analyse which tense this is? Why wouldn't you say If you could do x, it will be great. in normal conversation?
  

Top answer

Anonymous If you could do x, that would be great. OR It would be great, if you could do x. could = were able to It's a second conditional, no matter which order you put the clauses in.

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous If you could do x, that would be great.
  • OR It would be great, if you could do x.
  • could = were able to It's a second conditional, no matter which order you put the clauses in.
  • Constructions with modals ( could, would ) do not, strictly speaking, have tenses.
  • They are modal constructions.
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6 Answers
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AnonymousIf you could do x, that would be great. OR It would be great, if you could do x.
could = were able to

It's a second conditional, no matter which order you put the clauses in.

Constructions with modals (could, would) do not, strictly speaking, have tenses. They are modal constructions.

For purposes of deciding which c
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So you're saying that 'If you could do x, that would be great' isn't correct? That it should be 'If you were able to do x, that would be great'?
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AnonymousSo you're saying that 'If you could do x, that would be great' isn't correct? That it should be 'If you were able to do x, that would be great'?
No. "were able to" is just a paraphrase of "could" in that sentence. "could" is correct. "were able to" is correct.

CJ
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So it's a second conditional and you can't use future tense with modal constructions. Thanks very much!
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AnonymousSo it's a second conditional and you can't use future tense with modal constructions.
CJ did not say that.
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AnonymousIf you could do x, that would be great. OR It would be great, if you could do x.
You seem to ask this same question every three or four weeks. It's amazing how quickly you forget the answers.
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