Confused over the use of will/would

Question

I'm confused about using 'will' or 'would' in conditional sentences.

For instance, in this sentence, both 'would' and 'will' sound fine to me, although I think most would say to use 'will' because the first part is in the present tense:

'If you soften the villain of the story, the later scenes would/will lose all their suspense."

As I say, either 'would' or 'will' sounds fine to me, but the agreement seems to be on 'will' because the verb 'soften' is in the present tense.

However, the issue I then have is that I see a lot of sentences such as this one from the New Yorker:

"Maybe, if the Democrats somehow manage to win control of both chambers later this year, that scenario would become more likely."

Is this sentence incorrect, or is 'would' completely acceptable here? If so, why? The first verb is 'manage', not 'managed', so it should be 'will' for consistency. If this is fine, can I use 'would' in my first example sentence?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

JJDouglasAs I say, either 'would' or 'will' sounds fine to me, but the agreement seems to be on 'will' because the verb 'soften' is in the present tense.

This part of grammar is tricky. "Would" is wrong, and only "will" sounds right. "If you soften" is like "if you do soften" (conditional), and "if you softened" is like "if you were to soften" (subjunctive). If you do soften, then X will happen. I you were to soften, then X would happen.

JJDouglasIs this sentence incorrect

Yes, but it is not the crime of the century. A lot of people wouldn't even notice, I imagine. The speaker did not. People talk rather loosely a lot of the time, and it's no big deal, but it pays to be correct in writing when you can.

CalifJim · Answer

JJDouglasMaybe, if the Democrats somehow manage to win control of both chambers later this year, that scenario would become more likely.

This is called a mixed conditional. The if-clause is from the pattern seen in the first conditional; the consequent clause is from the second conditional.

This pattern can be used to show that the situation in the if-clause is viewed as less imaginary than the situation in something like if I won a million dollars or if we lived on the moon. In this case, there really is an election coming up later this year, so maybe that fact alone was enough for the writer to use 'manage' instead of 'managed'. Where to make the division between the more imaginary and the less imaginary situations is completely subjective, so there is no rule of grammar that governs this.

CJ

Confused over the use of will/would

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