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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Different questions on a conditional sentence in the past

Hi. Please help me with this sentence.

She knew he would land safe and dry.

I could be wrong but the above the sentence contains the modal "would" that denotes the future from the past. I also could be wrong but it also seems to contain a conditional element (like an implicit if-clause "if he jumped off something like a tall table that was placed in the water" - placed in the water? it is unlikely that anyone would place a table in the water and expect someone to jump off of it to land on dry ground but let us assume that for the sake of asking this question).

My question is this: How are we supposed to know if we are to use the adverb "safely" or what looks to be the adjective "safe" as seems to have done in the above sentence. I could be wrong but I think this type of knowledge can mainly come through much repeat exposure to the use, likely in a English-speaking country. What do you about what I said?

Let us change the sentence slightly to this (putting what I called an "implicit if-clause" in).

She knew he would land safe and dry if he jumped off the tall table.

I think the use of a second conditional pattern shifts the principal time frame to the past, that is, to the time of her knowing, but the hypothetical nature of the sentence still stands.

Also, I think the hypothetical nature of the second conditional pattern in the past-time frame still stands if the sentence had a "be" verb in the if-clause:

She knew he would have a good meal if he were at home.

Going further, I think If a person wants to talk hypothetical about something that might have taken place prior to the past time frame of the sentence, he has to use a third conditional pattern like this.

She knew that if he had jumped off the tall table, he would have landed safe and dry.

  

Top answer

Anonymous She knew he would land safe and dry. Yes. It's a future of the past.

  • Anonymous She knew he would land safe and dry.
  • Yes.
  • It's a future of the past.
  • She knew that he was going to land safe and dry.
  • Anonymous it also seems to contain a conditional element I don't think so.
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1 Answers
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AnonymousShe knew he would land safe and dry.
Yes. It's a future of the past. She knew that he was going to land safe and dry.
Anonymous it also seems to contain a conditional element
I don't think so. Obviously no one can know the future, so, in that vacuous sense, all supposed knowledge of the future is conditional, bu

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