What does "If" indicate in these sentences?

Question

The Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled that it was up to Christian Rossiter, aged 49, to decide if he was to continue to receive medical care (tube feeding) and that his carers had to abide by his wishes.
What does the sentence after the word if mean to you?
If he walked into my life today, I would be happy.
vs
If he walk into my life, I will be happy
If you did not create a user account in the firstboot screens, switch to a console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2
vs
If you do not create a user account in the firstboot screens, switch to a console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2
What if I logged in using Facebook Connect? Was my password compromised?

If you tried to open home page, it would not get open.
vs
If you try to open home page, it will not open.
----
I am a little bit confused about the use of "If" in these sentences. What do you think, "If + simple past vs If + simple present"
Please explain me the difference?

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

Hi harry1999

The Supreme Court of Western Australia ruled that it was up to Christian Rossiter, aged 49, to decide if he was to continue to receive medical care (tube feeding) and that his carers had to abide by his wishes.

What does the sentence after the word if mean to you?
Mr. Rossiter has the right to decide to live (being fed by a tube), or die (withdrawal of medical dependency). His caretakers must obey his decision.

If he walked into my life today, I would be happy. (This sentence assumes that it is not likely that he will appear. Perhaps "he" refers to the theoretical "Prince Charming")

vs
If he walks into my life, I will be happy. (This is a simple factual statement, such as "If you heat water, it will boil.")

a) If you did not create a user account in the firstboot screens, switch to a console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2.
vs
b) If you do not create a user account in the firstboot screens, switch to a console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2

These two are equivalent ways to say the same thing. (a) should appear after the user has gone through several screens, and (b) should appear on the starting screen before the user has done anything.

What if I logged in using Facebook Connect? ~~Was~~ Would my password be compromised?

If you had tried to open the home page, it would not have ~~get~~ opened. (The original is not a correct sequence of tenses. The edited version is a hypothetical situation in the past.)

vs
If you try to open the home page, it will not open. (This is a prediction. )

--I am a little bit confused about the use of "If" in these sentences. What do you think, "If + simple past vs If + simple present
Please explain me the difference to me?

CalifJim · Answer

harry1999I am a little bit confused about the use of "If" in these sentences. What do you think, "If + simple past vs If + simple present"
Please explain me the difference to me?

Let me explain a simple subset of these types of sentences. The important patterns are these:

Pattern 1 If + present, ... will ....
Pattern 2 If + past, ... would ....

You have to have the will or would in this type of sentence -- not just the if clause.
________

Very often, both patterns mean almost exactly the same thing.

If you feel that the situation in the if-clause is fairly realistic and likely to happen, you use Pattern 1.
If you feel that the situation in the if-clause is not realistic, and you are just imagining something that is not necessarily going to happen, you use Pattern 2.

________

1 If you try to open that page, it will not open.
(You might say this while working with someone at the computer. The situation is right there before you. The person you are speaking to may actually be about to try to open that page.)

2 If you tried to open that page, it would not open.
(You might say this when there is no computer anywhere around you. You are only imagining a situation in which someone (You don't even know who) might try to open that page. You are talking about what would happen in a case that is only imaginary.)

1 happens "in the real world"; 2 happens "in your mind".

CJ

What does "If" indicate in these sentences?

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