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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

If he helped with they need or needed

Hi. Please help. Do all verbs in a sentence conditional sentence have to written as to reflect the past-time perspective all the time? I am not sure if my question makes the crux of my inquiry clear, but I wrote the following example sentence, as the second one of the two example sentences, in a thread I started, which is titled "Tense for second conditional" in this forum and to which I didn't get a reply/response. I think the word "them" is optional (unless I (or anyone) want to be specific). Thank you in advance.

2. If he helped (them - optional?) with what they need (or needed?), they would be happy.
  

Top answer

The indirect object is not completely necessary, but it is more natural. ) If he helps them with what they need, they will be happy. If he would only help them with what they need they would be happy.

  • The indirect object is not completely necessary, but it is more natural.
  • ) If he helps them with what they need, they will be happy.
  • If he would only help them with what they need they would be happy.
  • ) If he had helped them with what they needed, they would have been happy.
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1 Answers
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The indirect object is not completely necessary, but it is more natural.

Present (Talking about something that happens in the future.)

If he helps them with what they need, they will be happy.

If he would only help them with what they need they would be happy.

Past:(Talking about something that did not happen in the past.)

If he had hel

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