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Victork Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
If you were…you would...
Hello everyone,
Is the use of the conditional okay in the text below (talking about the past):
In those days, if you were audacious enough to seduce a local's wife, you would be killed by her husband.
Is the use of the conditional okay in the above? The third conditional won't do, because the statement is not counterfactual or describing the improbable: if you were audacious, you really were killed - and that happened to a number of people.
Thank you!
Vic
Is the use of the conditional okay in the text below (talking about the past):
In those days, if you were audacious enough to seduce a local's wife, you would be killed by her husband.
Is the use of the conditional okay in the above? The third conditional won't do, because the statement is not counterfactual or describing the improbable: if you were audacious, you really were killed - and that happened to a number of people.
Thank you!
Vic
Top answer
victork Is the use of the conditional okay in the above? Yes, that is fine, Vic.
- victork Is the use of the conditional okay in the above?
- Yes, that is fine, Vic.
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3 Answers
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victorkIs the use of the conditional okay in the above?Yes, that is fine, Vic.
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victorkIs the use of the conditional okayYes. It may have given you some doubts because that pattern is usually a hypothetical claim about the present or future. However, the introductory phrase "In those days" makes it clear that this is simply a backshift of an ordinary real conditional in the present which shows a habitual connection between two situatio
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