Please help me to understand this sentence

Question

"If you have visited London, you will have seen the Thames"Even thought there is "if" ,it's not a conditional sentence.Hmmm.. I am confused :/

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Beata KolasinskaEven ~~thought~~ though there is an "if", it's not a conditional sentence.

Who said this? And what definition of "conditional sentence" are they using?

Now I'm confused too. The sentence certainly looks like a conditional sentence to me.

CJ

Cool Breeze · Answer

If is a conjunction that usually begins a conditional clause. By that I mean a clause that contains a condition, and in that sense If you have visited London is of course a conditional clause. In many languages, like my native Finnish, for example, a different word is used for the conditional mood and the term "conditional clause" on the above line. I think this may have led the original poster to conclude that his sentence isn't a conditional one. It's a clash of terms.

In English grammar books for non-native learners the auxiliaries would, could, should, ought and might are often said to occur in conditional mood clauses. This may be because those auxiliaries are often translated into the non-natives' mother tongues using the conditional mood.

CB

Please help me to understand this sentence

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions