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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Sentence help

Is this sentence correct?

You woke up one day in the morning and decided to get a better smile. What would you do?

Is the first sentence correct? Or should it be: you wake up in the morning and decide to get a better smile.

Is it referring to the past or future?
  

Top answer

Asking what someone would do if/when they decided to "get a better smile" is weird, so I will use a more plausible example. To ask about a hypothetical event: If you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what would you do? To ask about an event that you know happened: When you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what did you do?

— GPY

  • Asking what someone would do if/when they decided to "get a better smile" is weird, so I will use a more plausible example.
  • To ask about a hypothetical event: If you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what would you do?
  • To ask about an event that you know happened: When you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what did you do?
  • The following styles are possible but less usual: You woke up and found that your house was on fire.
  • What did you do?
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24 Answers
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Asking what someone would do if/when they decided to "get a better smile" is weird, so I will use a more plausible example.

To ask about a hypothetical event:
If you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what would you do?

To ask about an event that you know happened:
When you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what did you do?

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GPYAsking what someone would do if/when they decided to "get a better smile" is weird, so I will use a more plausible example.To ask about a hypothetical event:If you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what would you do?To ask about an event that you know happened:When you woke up and found that your house was on fire, what did you do?The following styles are
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Is this something to do with dentistry?
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GPYIs this something to do with dentistry?
Yes.
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GPYIs this something to do with dentistry?
So are they correct?

You woke up one day in the morning and decided to get a better smile. What's the first step?

You wake up in the morning and decide to get a better smile. What's the first step?

Are both correct, but the second one is more like a quiz question as you pointed out?
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As part an advertisement for dentistry, the second one is OK. As an isolated sentence, with no explanation of the context, it seems unexpected.

The first one doesn't work very well. The tenses of the two sentences don't seem to match, and "wake up one day in the morning" is a bit clumsy too.
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AnonymousIs the first sentence correct?
Yes, but not as idiomatic as it could be.

You woke up one day in the morning and decided to get a better smile. What would you do?
AnonymousOr should it be: you wake up in the morning and decide to get a better smile.
That's also possible, but then it would e
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GPYThe first one doesn't work very well. The tenses of the two sentences don't seem to match, and "wake up one day in the morning" is a bit clumsy too.
The first one is 'woke up', not wake up. Is that what you meant?
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CalifJimYou woke up one day in the morning and decided to get a better smile. What would you do?
This combination doesn't sound right to me.
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GPYThis combination doesn't sound right to me.
That's understandable. It's really off unless you take it as "Suppose that ...". It sounded like an ad to me, which suggested "Suppose that", so I supposed. — Not a well-written ad, maybe, but still ad-like.

CJ
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