What if

Question

I found out the following sentence from a movie.

"If we actually did, what our wives think we're doing?"

I considered this sentence to be used the subjucntive mood.

So, I thought "If we actually did, what would our wives think we're doing?" was more acceptable.

I don't understand why the present tense is used in this passage.

could anyone explain this to me?

thanks in advance.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

If this is a subtitle, it has typographical problems; if it is your transcription of what you heard, it is mis-transcribed.  Your revised version is one acceptable correction.

Anonymous · Answer

There must have been something before or after this sentence. I am afraid your sentence is not complete although it is a subjunctive one the conditional clause is present and the resulting clause is not present. In this sentence " If we actually did" is a conditional part "What our wives think we're doing" this is not the resulting part actually it starts with what which is a relative pronoun to relate "our wives think we're doing" to clear "did" in conditional clause.

The sentence may be like this:

"If we actually did (conditinal clause) , what our wives think we're doing , would be really disturbing (resulting clause) missing in your sentence. I don't say that the resulting clause I filled in is the one present in the movie you watched it could be anything it could even be a question like:

"If we actually did, what our wives think we're doing , our marriages would be in trouble" (resulting clause) missing

So the bottom line is that the above sentence is 100% right but it is not complete. You should check the movie again and try to focus the sentences before and after the sentence.

Faisal Samiullah

What if

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