Past real conditional

Question

Hi.Is this underlined sentence a past real conditional? In my understanding, past real conditional sentence is used for saying what used to happen in the past. But the Continental Congress was held only once after its first meeting. This big meeting was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1774. It was called the Continental Congress. Every colony but Georgia sent delegates. If Britain kept mistreating America, Congress was to meet again the next spring. Britain didn't change its ways. War between the thirteen colonies and Britain broke out on April 19, 1775, at Lexington, Massachusetts. The Second Continental Congress opened in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania State House that May.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

kook jIs this underlined sentence a past real conditional?

I'm not sure I would call it that. The idea of Britain's mistreatment of America is hypothetical - or was hypothetical at the time. That means it's not a real conditional.

This is a forward-shifted variant of a third conditional.

The unvaried form, which gives the facts from our present-day point of view, is

If Britain had kept mistreating America, Congress would have met again the next spring.

To tell the same story from the point of view of the people who lived at that time, thereby making the story more vivid, the unvaried form is forward shifted to a second conditional.

If Britain kept mistreating America, Congress would meet again the next spring.

Then "would" is replaced by an idiomatic equivalent, "was to", which gives more of the flavor that Congress actually planned this.

If Britain kept mistreating America, Congress was to meet again the next spring.
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Note that you can also analyze the sentence as a backshift of a first conditional:

If Britain keeps mistreating America, Congress [will / is to] meet again the next spring.

If you approach it that way you can make a better case for calling it a past real conditional.

The fact is, we weren't there, so we can only guess how real Britain's continued mistreatment of America seemed to the people of that time. You can argue this either way.

CJ

Kook j · Answer

Thank you very much CJ for your explanation. You provided me what my grammar book does not.

I think this is right.

CalifJimTo tell the same story from the point of view of the people who lived at that time, thereby making the story more vivid, the unvaried form is forward shifted to a second conditional.If Britain kept mistreating America, Congress would meet again the next spring.Then "would" is replaced by an idiomatic equivalent, "was to", which gives more of the flavor that Congress actually planned this.If Britain kept mistreating America, Congress was to meet again the next spring.

As you well explained it's not a real conditional , but I don't think it's a third conditional because there's a sentence : Britain didn't change its ways which means Britain actually kept mistreating America and that's one of the reasons why the second Congress was held.

Past real conditional

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