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Taka Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

subjunctive or past conditional

0 01i00He thought his mother would understand why he was living in Japan 01font00only if she saw02font00 his life there with her own eyes.02br
02br
02i00About '01font00only if she saw...02font00', how would you native speakers perceive it?02br
02br
00(1) subjunctive02br
00(2) past conditional (due to the sequence of tenses)02br
00(3) either (1) or (2), depending on its context0-
  

Top answer

02i 02br 02br 00I'll say "sunjunctive". 0-

— Goodman

  • 02i 02br 02br 00I'll say "sunjunctive".
  • 0-
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43 Answers
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0<<01i00He thought 01font00his mother02font00 01font01u00would02u02font00 understand why he was living in Japan 01font00only if she 02font01font01u00saw02u02font00 his life th
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0 00Uh-oh! This is a difficult question! I lost a lot of time trying to understand how to use conditional sentences in reported speech, and in the end I didn't even understand completely! However, let's see if I can explain what I think:02br
02br
01i01b00He thought his mother would understand why he was living in Japan 00only if she saw00 his life
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Taka12cite11i10He thought his mother would understand why he was living in Japan 11font10only if she saw12font10 his life there with her own eyes.12i12blockquote
10The sentence is not good. It should read: 02br
02br
01i00He
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0Kooyeen,02br
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00I thought you were leaving for Paris yesterday. Why are yo ustill here? "I thought" meant "01font00in my mind, I believe02font00..' 02br
02br
01font00In the context of this sentence "01font00I thought02font00 (In my mind
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Goodman12cite10I'll say "sunjunctive".12blockquote
10I agree. There's nothing wrong with the sentence.02br
00CB0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Cool Breeze12cite11blockquote
11cite20Goodman22cite20I'll say "sunjunctive".22blockquote
20I agree.12blockquote
10Of course it's not the subjunctive (but it should be). 01i00"Saw02i00" is the simple past (indefinite preterite).
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0Hi Bokeh,02br
02br
00Becasue of your reply, it made me take a second look at the original question. I also did some research and found this paper written on the subject of 01b00 Semantic Composition of Subjunctive Conditionals 02b00by 01i00Michela Ippolito of MIT/Tübingen University. I am not completely sure if I understood all thwt he wrot
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0 As Kooyeen suggested, couldn't the original sentence be seen this way?02br
02br
00His direct speech: "(What I think is that) my mother will understand why I am living in Japan only if she sees my life here with her own eyes."0-
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0 Absolutely! 0-
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01. He thought his mother would understand why he was living in Japan only if she saw his life there with her own eyes.02br
02hr
00I agree that this might be a reported version of two possible sentences:02br
02br
002. "My mother will understand why I am living in Japan only if she sees my life here with her own eyes."02br
02br
003. "My
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