If you are that situation, what would you do?

Question

If you are that situation, what would you do?In this sentence, can I use what "would" ? I mean.. I think it should be "will" but.. would sounds better.please tell me how I should say thank you

Dave_anon · Accepted Answer

Hi

You do need to say "in that situation". But with that, you could have..

- If you found yourself in that situation, what would you do?

This is correct. A more conversational sentence, using narrative tenses, would be..

- If you are in that situation, what will you do?

I think both are natural

Regards, Dave

Moon7296 · Answer

Hi,

1. If you found yourself in that situation, what would you do? (this is the subjunctive mood, isn't it?)

2. If you are in that situation, what will you do? (this is not the subjunctive mood, is it?)

Like you suggested #2, would you not say 'If you find yourself in that situation, what will you do?'?

One more additional question:

There is two question marks: one within quotation marks and the other outside the second quotation(as that is the question, not a statement). Is this correct?

Thank you in advance^^

p.s. (I'm sorry for being very bothering but could you please answer my latest question?: pastor/pasta in BrE(pronunciation).

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

You have three questions in one! To take the first question last..

I think your pasta/pastor phonetics are generally correct for the south of England

The Italian food has a short 'a' vowel and a very short vowel at the end..

- 'pæs.t?

A church leader has a longer 'a' vowel and, at the end, a shortish vowel with a hint of 'r' at the end..

- 'p??.st?r

To my ear, these sound quite different. However..

- In UK English it is acceptable to use a longer 'a' in pasta. But it will probably sound as if you are trying to impress people by pronouncing it in an Italian or US/Italian way. Not many people do this in the UK

- The word pastor is well-understood and respected in UK English but it is not heard that often. A leader in a local chuch could well be a vicar or a priest. So it would be fairly unusual for there to be a misunderstanding

- In some UK English accents, the 'a' is almost always short, so pasta and pastor would then sound alike

Your second comment about the pronunciation is interesting: why is the 'a' in pasta shorter in English? US contributors may wish to correct me. I would say that where a word goes from the UK to the US then the 'a' has the same length or is shorter

However, "pasta" is not like that because US is more directly influenced by the Italian origin (where the 'a' is longer). In the UK, there is less direct Italian influence and so - as Mr M says - we in the UK have anglicised it more quickly into a short 'a'

That seems quite complicated - but I hope it helps, Dave

Dave_anon · Answer

Hi

To answer your further question: I don't quite have the technical knowledge. I can only give you my own rule and you will have to see if others disagree..

My rule is: if a sentence ends with quoted speech then you should use the final punctuation only once and you should use it outside the quotation marks. For example..

- Consider this sentence: "The cat sat on the mat".

- What do we think of this question: "Is the cat sitting on the mat"?

I'm not sure about that last example, but I don't like..

- What do we think of this question: "Is the cat sitting on the mat?"?

I would go with just one question mark but, as said, we'll have to see if someone has a different view..

Best regards, Dave

Moon7296 · Answer

First off, thank you very much for providing detailed point of your view about this question.

There's one more thing to say.

I want British to answer my question but no British answered my question:

[BrE] pronunciation: out of, a lot of,

Sorry to ask your help like this again but I haven't find better way to ask someone's help other than this way.

(If I leave a message in someone's message board, they may not read?)

If you are that situation, what would you do?

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[BrE] pronunciation: out of, a lot of,

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