Help

Clive

When you asked me if 'I think he would be here' was a complete sentence, you didn't say you weren't talking about an 'if clause' situation! So, when I answered, I was thinking of this kind of example.

eg Where the 'if clause' is located elsewhere in the context., as follows.

Mary: Where would Tom be if he were alive today?

Jean: I think he would be here.

Or consider your original example, which needed no 'if clause'.

I think the first president would've been George Washington.

In a similar fashion, we can say

eg I think he would've been here. I can smell his after-shave lotion.

"I think he would've been here. I can smell his after-shave lotion."

Does this sentence have no implied if clause or of clause at all, just like my first sentence? If that's the case, whats the meaning of would here? Does it show imagination, hypotbetical, unreal?