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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

"If Clause"

Hello, I have a question about "If clause". In my non native English speaker sense, I think that I could say "if you lied to me at that time, I will never forgive you" So is it okay to use the past tense form in If clauses and the present or future tense in main clauses? Although in my language system, it is used but I do not know if it is possible in English system. Could you help me again please?

Thank you as always and have a good day.
  

Top answer

The sentence sounds awkward to native ears. The problem is that using "if" implies uncertainty. ", that is, present followed by future - at the present time there is uncertainty about if the thing will be done, then, if it is done, there will be something done in response to it, in the future.

— Anonymous

  • The sentence sounds awkward to native ears.
  • The problem is that using "if" implies uncertainty.
  • ", that is, present followed by future - at the present time there is uncertainty about if the thing will be done, then, if it is done, there will be something done in response to it, in the future.
  • However, your sentence has a past tense in the if-clause.
  • This causes a problem because if something happened in the past, then there is no uncertainty as to what happened.
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2 Answers
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The sentence sounds awkward to native ears. The problem is that using "if" implies uncertainty. So the typical construction is: "If you do ___ , I'll ___ .", that is, present followed by future - at the present time there is uncertainty about if the thing will be done, then, if it is done, there will be something done in response to it, in the future. However, your sentence has a past
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Hi,

"if you lied to me at that time, I will never forgive you"

This is OK in a context eg like this.

You told me yesterday that you loved me.
Right now I'm not sure if you told the truth yesterday.
So I say," If you lied
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