What conditional?
I ran across a sentence in an article on candles clocks. The sentence is as follows.
(If each stripe melted in about an hour, about three hours would have passed when three stripes melted.)
I'd like to know what kind of conditional it is.
Top answer
I see it as a mixed conditional. , in the hypothetical past. In other words, when you see (now) three stripes melted, you know that three hours passed from the time of setting that wax clock to measure the time.
- I see it as a mixed conditional.
- , in the hypothetical past.
- In other words, when you see (now) three stripes melted, you know that three hours passed from the time of setting that wax clock to measure the time.
- ----------------- PS: I'm a non-native.
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I see it as a mixed conditional. The time in the if-clause is a sort of "always" (including "now" i.e., present) expressing a rule and the time in the main clause is "before now", i.e., in the hypothetical past. In other words, when you see (now) three stripes melted, you know that three hours passed from the time of setting that wax clock to measure the time.
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