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EverestCTS Posted 4 years ago
Grammar

Would

A: His 1926 exclusive on a covert collaboration between the Reichswehr and the Soviet Red Army brought the German government to collapse. Other journalists would have known of the secret deal, which was common knowledge among European intelligence agencies, just as they would have known that making it public risked being sent to prison for treason in Germany. They decided not to publish. Voigt did.

Are the bold would haves in the sentences above conditional? I don’t know how they are conditional woulds. I just can’t figure it out. Conditional woulds don’t make sense.

B: I don’t know Elisa’s number. I think Dan would know it.

Is the bold would in sentence B conditional? I think it’s a conditional would with an implied if clause “if you asked Dan”.

I finally figured out how to open an account. For some reason, I kept trying to open one by linking my Facebook account or email account but it failed.

  

Top answer

EverestCTS Are the bold would haves in the sentences above conditional? No. The author is saying something like "I'm pretty sure/certain that those journalists knew".

  • EverestCTS Are the bold would haves in the sentences above conditional?
  • No.
  • The author is saying something like "I'm pretty sure/certain that those journalists knew".
  • EverestCTS Is the bold would in sentence B conditional?
  • No.
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1 Answers
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EverestCTSAre the bold would haves in the sentences above conditional?

No. The author is saying something like "I'm pretty sure/certain that those journalists knew".

EverestCTSIs the bold would in sentence B conditional?

No. Again, the author is saying "I am fairly sure Dan knows".

EverestCTS

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