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Newguest Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

didn't come

Hi

If Tom didn't come with us to the beach, everyone would be very disappointed.

--- does the first part of the sentence refers to the future and the second one to the present? I'm not sure I understand it.
  

Top answer

It's called the Second Conditional . It refers to the present or to the future and expresses unreal situation. If Tom didn't come with us to the beach, everyone would be very disappointed.

— Fandorin

  • It's called the Second Conditional .
  • It refers to the present or to the future and expresses unreal situation.
  • If Tom didn't come with us to the beach, everyone would be very disappointed.
  • It means that: He doesn't come to the beach.
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9 Answers
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It's called the Second Conditional. It refers to the present or to the future and expresses unreal situation.

If Tom didn't come with us to the beach, everyone would be very disappointed. It means that: He doesn't come to the beach.
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Hi

Look at the very last example on this page:

http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/mixedconditional.html

According to this: If Seb DIDN'T COME with us....... refers to the future and it is
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It's just a normal "Second Conditional".
If he came with us (tomorrow), we would be happy.
If he didn't come with us (tomorrow), we would be disappointed.
We would be delighted if you came with us on our trip next month.
The children's hearts would break if the teacher cancelled the outing to the zoo next week.
The children would be very sad if
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CalifJim It's just a normal "Second Conditional".

If he came with us (tomorrow), we would be happy.

If he didn't come with us (tomorrow), we would be disappointed.

We would be delighted if you came with us on our trip next month.

The children's hearts would break if the teacher cancelled the outing to the zoo ne
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In second conditionals the past simple is hypothetical, not really time-bound...in some usage grammar books it's called 'unreal past'

Hypothesis or conditionality is not considered time-bound, at least regarding this case. Only first conditionals take the if-clause in present and the second clause in future. The rest of conditional sentences and tenses are bound by aspect (perfection) and
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NewguestIsn't it better to use the first conditional?
Not necessarily, but the first conditional is also a possibility. The second conditional simply indicates that we're thinking about the situation in a hypothetical way -- musing about a possibility in a sort of theoretical way -- a sort of "What if?" way.

CJ
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CalifJim
NewguestIsn't it better to use the first conditional?
Not necessarily, but the first conditional is also a possibility. The second conditional simply indicates that we're thinking about the situation in a hypothetical way -- musing about a possibility in a sort of theoretical way -- a sort of "What if?" way.

CJ
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NewguestSo both conditionals would be OK, the only difference is that first conditional indicates that something will most probably happen and the second that it is just a hypothesis, speculation?
Yes. That's the basic idea.
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Thank you for all the answers guys!
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