Tense

Question

If I had ignored them, we would have had less success.Does the tense in the if statement has to always match the rest? Are there exceptions?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

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If I had ignored them, we would have had less success.

Does the tense in the if statement ~~has to~~ always have to match the rest? Are there exceptions?

No. There are a few tense combinations that are frequently used (shown below), but others are certainly possible.

a) If [Present], [Imperative].
b) If [Present], [Present].
c) If [Present], [Future of the present (WILL)].
d) If [Past], [Past].
e) If [Past], [Future of the past (WOULD)].
f) If [Past Perfect (HAD)], [Future perfect of the past (WOULD HAVE)].

Examples:

a) If you feel ill, see a doctor.
b) If a cat approaches a bird, the bird flies away.
c) If you put your hand into the fire, it will burn.
d) If the suspect was in New York at the time, he didn't commit the crime in Texas.
e) If you ran fast enough, you would win the race.
f) If you had run fast enough, you would have won the race.

c) is called a "first conditional".
e) is called a "second conditional".
f) is called a "third conditional".

These have special names because they are so commonly used.

CJ

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