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This is our secret knock.When I knock once, you will have to reply with 3 knocks in 5 seconds. Otherwise, I would suspect that you were in trouble and would come to your rescue.

Are there any mistakes in this sentence?

Thanks in advance!

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

This is our secret knock.When I knock once, [you will have to]¹ reply with 3 knocks in 5 seconds. Otherwise, I'll ~~would~~ suspect that you're ~~were~~ in trouble and I'll ~~would~~ come to your rescue.

¹You can omit the words in brackets.

CJ

New2grammar · Answer

Calif, is the following revised sentence correct? I chose to use Type 2 conditional.

This is our secret knock.When I knock once, reply with 3 knocks in 5 seconds. If you did not, I would suspect that you were in trouble and would come to your rescue.

Thanks!

CalifJim · Answer

There's nothing wrong with the sentence except that it's in the wrong context, mixing present and past.

Do you remember how we had a secret knock when we were young? If I knocked once, you would reply with 3 knocks in 5 seconds. If you didn't knock, I would suspect that you were in trouble and would come to your rescue.

These aren't true conditionals. They are backshifts of the present tense equivalents (below). In either tense there is a habitual aspect to the statements. In the past you could have used a few used to's instead of would's.

This is the secret knock. If I knock once, you reply with 3 knocks in 5 seconds. If you don't knock, I'll suspect that you're in trouble and I'll come to your rescue.

You are just giving instuctions about how a procedure is performed. There is no unreal condition here.

This is a very subtle point, and not worth losing sleep over. Your main take-away here should be to keep the whole story in the present tense or the whole story in the past tense.

CJ

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