Question about sentences
Dear all,
Please see the following second conditional sentence. I know that in the second conditional sentences things are said hypothetically. Here "I were" is used as a past form, but I am unsure about in which form "I would" is used, i.e. in past, or present. What I mean is, when I try to understand the meaning of the following sentence in my language, can I take the first part in the past form and the second part in the present form. Kindly advise me on this.
1) If I were you, I would say sorry to your parents.
Top answer
If I were you, I would say sorry to your parents. No, this "were" is not a past form but a mood form, sometimes called the past subjunctive (or preferably 'irrealis'), which is typically found in the protasis of remote conditionals. Syntactically, "would" is the preterite (past) form of "will", but semantically it here refers to future time.
- If I were you, I would say sorry to your parents.
- No, this "were" is not a past form but a mood form, sometimes called the past subjunctive (or preferably 'irrealis'), which is typically found in the protasis of remote conditionals.
- Syntactically, "would" is the preterite (past) form of "will", but semantically it here refers to future time.
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If I were you, I would say sorry to your parents.
No, this "were" is not a past form but a mood form, sometimes called the past subjunctive (or preferably 'irrealis'), which is typically found in the protasis of remote conditionals.
Syntactically, "would" is the preterite (past) form of "will", but semantically it here refers to future time.
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