Word choice

Question

Which word is correct, help or helped?I would appreciate it if you 'help or helped' me

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

<i>helped</i>

Anonymous · Answer

Mister Micawberhelped

Thanks, MM. That is what I thought. I got confused by a previous thread, and would appreciate your confirmation on that, because I know that 'would' takes a past tense. This is this is the example:

Would you call me if you 'find or found' my dog?

Should it be 'find or found'?

Fivejedjon · Answer

AnonymousThanks, MM. That is what I thought. I got confused by a previous thread, and would appreciate your confirmation on that, because I know that 'would' takes a past tense. This is this is the example:Would you call me if you 'find or found' my dog?

No. The sentence in the other thread was "Would you please call me if you find my dog."

Mister Micawber · Answer

'Find' probably, though it could be 'found'.

It is a different use of 'would'. This one is a simple request, we presume.

Anonymous · Answer

fivejedjon AnonymousThanks, MM. That is what I thought. I got confused by a previous thread, and would appreciate your confirmation on that, because I know that 'would' takes a past tense. This is this is the example:Would you call me if you 'find or found' my dog?No. The sentence in the other thread was "Would you please call me if you find my dog."

Thanks. Yes, that was the exact sentence. I didn't think that I had to write the exact same one to get the answer to my question. I will keep that in mind for next time.

Would you please tell me what you think?

Anonymous · Answer

Mister Micawber'Find' probably, though it could be 'found'.It is a different use of 'would'. This one is a simple request, we presume.

I see, thanks. So only in simple requests, even with 'if', it is OK. Right?

Would it be also Ok to use 'help' in the first sentence above, or not since it is not a request?

Mister Micawber · Answer

AnonymousSo only in simple requests, even with 'if', it is OK. Right?

Right.

AnonymousWould it be also Ok to use 'help' in the first sentence above, or not since it is not a request?

It would be a bit rude and poor grammar if you did.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks a lot, MM. I thought I would know the answers to most conditional sentences or any sentence with 'if' in terms of tense selection, as I have spent a lot of time on them with you and others, but that was a bit tricky.

Mister MicawberAnonymousWould it be also Ok to use 'help' in the first sentence above, or not since it is not a request?It would be a bit rude and poor grammar if you did.

Just to make sure and confirm what you said and what I have in mind, any or almost all conditional sentences (with 'if') with the word 'would' take a past tense, such as our example above where you said it would be poor grammar, except in request sentences, which is a rare situation. Of course, I know we have the mixed conditionals, which I am not referring to. Am I correct?

Also, when we say conditional sentences it means they include the word 'if' in them, right?

Thank you very much in advance, as I have been thinking a lot about this grammar matter!!

Mister Micawber · Answer

Anonymous, except in request sentences, which is a rare situation

Requests are not rare at all—they may in practice be much more common than conditional sentences.

Anonymous · Answer

Mister MicawberRequests are not rare at all—they may in practice be much more common than conditional sentences.

Yes, I did not mean that requests are rare. I meant the use of the word 'find' in the present tense in request sentences that are in conditional forms are rare, where there is no need for it to be in the past to match 'would'.

I hope I have made that clear. If so, is what I said in the previous post correct?

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