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Silvercats Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

IF clause question

"If you studied you would pass the exam" . 'Studied' is in past tense,'would' is in past tense too. So can we still use this to express something that could happen in the future?This is confusing
thanks
  

Top answer

Yes; in fact, you must. They cannot refer to the past in this conditional structure. They merely look like the past tense, they are not past tense.

— Mister Micawber

  • Yes; in fact, you must.
  • They cannot refer to the past in this conditional structure.
  • They merely look like the past tense, they are not past tense.
  • Many verbs look the same in several tenses: put / put / put , for instance.
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3 Answers
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Yes; in fact, you must. They cannot refer to the past in this conditional structure. They merely look like the past tense, they are not past tense. Many verbs look the same in several tenses: put / put / put, for instance.
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The first speaker expects the student to study; the second speaker does not.
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Right! Conditional III is the past form: 'If you had studied last week, you would have passed the exam yesterday,'
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