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Tkacka15 Posted 7 years ago
Vocabulary

...you'd offered me

‘I don't like Scotch. Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me’

That's from the Oxford Dictionary: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/now

My question is: what type of the conditional is the clause if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me?

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I've tried to read it as if it had been Irish Whiskey (that) you'd offered me’, but I, somehow, cannot find any correlation between the if-clause and I don't like Scotch. Now,...

  

Top answer

You're quoting a definition of the word "now", not an example of a full conditional construction. And like most dictionary definitions, unnecessary words are ellipted. The phrase Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me is just the protasis part of a remote conditional -- the apodosis is missing, though inferrable from the context.

— BillJ

  • You're quoting a definition of the word "now", not an example of a full conditional construction.
  • And like most dictionary definitions, unnecessary words are ellipted.
  • The phrase Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me is just the protasis part of a remote conditional -- the apodosis is missing, though inferrable from the context.
  • You could expand it to a full conditional construction easily enough, though: I don't like Scotch.
  • Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me , I would have willingly accepted it.
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2 Answers
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You're quoting a definition of the word "now", not an example of a full conditional construction. And like most dictionary definitions, unnecessary words are ellipted.

The phrase Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me is just the protasis part of a remote conditional -- the apodosis is missing, though inferrable from the context.

You could expand it to a full con

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It's a third conditional. The main clause is implied but not stated.

Understand the sentence this way.

Now, if it had been Irish Whiskey you'd offered me, I would have drunk some with you.

Clive

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