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Hotmale Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

Mixed conditionals

Hello,

I'm to rewrite this sentence, using mixed conditionals:

"They didn't take a map with them. They are lost now."
I guess the sentence should read: "If they had taken a map with them, they wouldn't be lost now."

My question concerns the original sentence. Why past simple is used there? Shouldn't it be Present Perfect (they haven't taken ...)? After all, it affects the present - "They are lost now."

Thank you
  

Top answer

Hotmale My question concerns the original sentence. Why past simple is used there? The event of taking the map is actually disconnected from the present because once you neglect to do it at the start of the trip, you can't go back in time and do it now (without changing the whole story).

— CalifJim

  • Hotmale My question concerns the original sentence.
  • Why past simple is used there?
  • The event of taking the map is actually disconnected from the present because once you neglect to do it at the start of the trip, you can't go back in time and do it now (without changing the whole story).
  • You're already lost.
  • Besides, many people can successfully navigate without a map, so there is no direct causality in action here.
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5 Answers
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HotmaleMy question concerns the original sentence. Why past simple is used there?
The event of taking the map is actually disconnected from the present because once you neglect to do it at the start of the trip, you can't go back in time and do it now (without changing the whole story). You're already lost. Besides, many people can successfully navigate with
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CalifJimThen English would not have a past tense at all.
It calls to mind some tribes, in the Amazon rainforest, which use language that has only one tense, i.e. the present; there is no past or future tenses in their tongue. And they are a big challenge for the missionaries who can't explain them the past biblical events in their own language.
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CalifJimThis often repeated principle has to be taken less strictly at times. If you think about it, you'll see that just about anything that is done in the past affects the present in one way or another. We would always have to use the present perfect instead of the past if we took that principle strictly and literally. Then English would not have a past tense at all.
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HotmaleI've lost my wallet means that my wallet is lost now, so I don't have it.I lost my wallet means that my wallet was lost at some time in the past, which doesn't mean that I don't have it now.
Both may just as easily mean that you don't have it now, I'm sorry to report.
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Now I know, thank you.
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