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Perfect Stranger Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Grammar question no. 32: how to express the past using if + tense
Howdy,
I know that we normally use the III conditional to talk about past events that can't be changed. And then, we use the II conditional to talk about hypothetical situations in the future. What about this sentence?
If you didn't want to go there, why did you?
Does it make any sense? Should we change it into:
If you hadn't wanted to go there, why did you?
Thanks
I know that we normally use the III conditional to talk about past events that can't be changed. And then, we use the II conditional to talk about hypothetical situations in the future. What about this sentence?
If you didn't want to go there, why did you?
Does it make any sense? Should we change it into:
If you hadn't wanted to go there, why did you?
Thanks
Top answer
That is not really a conditional sentence 'If' is used here in the sense of 'Given that'.
- That is not really a conditional sentence 'If' is used here in the sense of 'Given that'.
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4 Answers
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That is not really a conditional sentence 'If' is used here in the sense of 'Given that'.
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Thanks Fivejedjon. I can assume then that the sentence is perfectly fine, can I?
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Perfect StrangerIf you didn't want to go there, why did you?You can have the past in both clauses like this. It's not a second conditional nor a third conditional because there is no "would".
This construction may be considered a back-shift of the corresponding present-tense sentence.
If you don't want to go there, why do you?
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