Thread: Conditional
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Old 30-Mar-2005, 11:45
Tdol Tdol is offline
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Default Re: Conditional

Conditional II = If + Simple Past, would + infinitive
If the Queen died, she would succeed by her son Charles.

She won't be doing anything when she dies- Charles will succeed her.

Conditional II = If + Simple Past, would + infinitive
If I were rich, I would lay in the sun on a tropical island

Nothing wrong with this grammatically, though I'd recommend using 'lie' instead of 'lay'; though some native speakers would use it, many consider it an error.

Conditional III = If + Past Perfect, would + have + Past Participle
If I had not married, I would still have lived abroad.

This is also fine.



By the way: I'm really sure that "Had not got married" doesn't work. I think that "got" is never used before a verb. Am I wrong?

We do use GET/GOT + verb.

Would you please also explain to me No. 1?

I think that "if + were + infinitve" sounds very odd and I have never heard it before. What's wrong when I say "if + simple past"? I haven't known that "if + were + infinitive" is also used. Please explain to me, when it is used.

It reduces the possibility, and is mostly found in formal language.

If I went there (unlikely)
If I were to go there (very unlikely)

Hela, I'm very sorry that I gave you wrong information. I hope that I understand it better after Tdol gave me some explanations.

I wouldn't worry about this- some was right- I was basing my answers on Hela's. Also, how else do you learn?
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