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Munchun2004 Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Fast talk
I have some problem with tenses backshift that I hope somebody could help me with. I heard the following dialog from the MSN Video show:
Avenger Father: How would he feel if they tried the same thing with him, and he had an apportunity to assist the authority, to bring these criminals into justice, and he did nothing about it?
My problem is, does the above sentence sound like a present time third conditional or past time third conditional to you? I know that when we try to explain the third conditional for past event, we should always double backshift. So by right, the above sentence should sound as follow:
Avenger Father: How would he feel if they had tried the same thing with him, and he had had an apportunity to assist the authority, to bring these criminals into justice, and he had done/had had done(could we use 'did' too?) nothing about it?
But from what I hear from the native speaker, especially from the news, they kind of eat up all the backshift whenever they try to convey what would happen to somebody if that person had been in his situation when the incident happened. Could somebody tell me whether this is a trend of English, especially in spoken English, to not backshift for third conditional or people are simply careless when they speak the past third conditional cases?
Avenger Father: How would he feel if they tried the same thing with him, and he had an apportunity to assist the authority, to bring these criminals into justice, and he did nothing about it?
My problem is, does the above sentence sound like a present time third conditional or past time third conditional to you? I know that when we try to explain the third conditional for past event, we should always double backshift. So by right, the above sentence should sound as follow:
Avenger Father: How would he feel if they had tried the same thing with him, and he had had an apportunity to assist the authority, to bring these criminals into justice, and he had done/had had done(could we use 'did' too?) nothing about it?
But from what I hear from the native speaker, especially from the news, they kind of eat up all the backshift whenever they try to convey what would happen to somebody if that person had been in his situation when the incident happened. Could somebody tell me whether this is a trend of English, especially in spoken English, to not backshift for third conditional or people are simply careless when they speak the past third conditional cases?
Top answer
How would he feel if they tried the same thing with him, and he had an opportunity to assist the authorities, to bring these criminals into justice, and he did nothing about it? This is just a normal (present time) "second conditional" to me. The question asks how this person ("he") would feel now if a certain condition were true now .
- How would he feel if they tried the same thing with him, and he had an opportunity to assist the authorities, to bring these criminals into justice, and he did nothing about it?
- This is just a normal (present time) "second conditional" to me.
- The question asks how this person ("he") would feel now if a certain condition were true now .
- , and he HAD an opportunity ...
- and he DID nothing about it?
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2 Answers
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How would he feel if they tried the same thing with him, and he had an opportunity to assist the authorities, to bring these criminals into justice, and he did nothing about it?
This is just a normal (present time) "second conditional" to me. The question asks how this person ("he") would feel now if a certain condition were true now.
How WOULD he FEEL
IF
This is just a normal (present time) "second conditional" to me. The question asks how this person ("he") would feel now if a certain condition were true now.
How WOULD he FEEL
IF
00
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