If your late father {had been attending / *had attended} your wedding tomorrow,
If your late father {had been attending / *had attended} your wedding tomorrow, he would have been very proud.
('Had been attending' is fine because #Q is determined by #P, which describes a present negative intention or arrangement: 'Your late father isn't attending your wedding tomorrow '. The nonprogressive sentence '*Your late father doesn't attend your wedding tomorrow' cannot be used in this sense, which means that it cannot be the expression of the proposition #P which is true in the present.)
Hi. This example is from Conditionals: A Comprehensive Empirical Analysis. After reading the explanation, I still don’t understand why “had attended” doesn’t work here (marked by *). Could you please explain it?
Thank you.
Top answer
The explanation centers on the fact that a continuous tense can indicate a time after the time named by the tense. For example, the present continuous can indicate future time: I'm seeing my cousins tomorrow. ~ I'm going to see my cousins tomorrow.
- The explanation centers on the fact that a continuous tense can indicate a time after the time named by the tense.
- For example, the present continuous can indicate future time: I'm seeing my cousins tomorrow.
- ~ I'm going to see my cousins tomorrow.
- I'm attending the wedding.
- ~ I'm going to attend the wedding.
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The explanation centers on the fact that a continuous tense can indicate a time after the time named by the tense.
For example, the present continuous can indicate future time:
I'm seeing my cousins tomorrow. ~ I'm going to see my cousins tomorrow.
I'm attending the wedding. ~ I'm going to attend the wedding.
And the past continuous can indicate the f
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