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Originally Posted by MrPedantic Interesting.
And would this (overheard a few weeks ago) also count as an 'extended' zero conditional:
"Well, if Chelsea don't win tomorrow, all I can say is, someone's tapped up the ref."
(I should explain that 'tapping up' is when an agent illicitly suggests to a player that he'd get a better deal elsewhere. I think the speaker here simply meant 'bribed'; but 'tapping up' was much in the news.) |
First, I would say this. As far as I know, if "Chelsea" is a collective noun, then "if Chelsea don't win" is okay in British English. If Chelsea is not a collective noun, then it should be "if Chelsea doesn't win".
In American English, either way it should be "if Chelsea doesn't win".
What's an "extended zero conditional"? Why did you choose to use the term "extended zero conditional"?
By the way, if we are defining "zero conditional", a zero conditional uses the simple present.
As to your sentence, I don't know of a specific way of classifying it as a conditional.
What do you call it?
How is that you could possibly think that your example sentence could be classified as a zero conditional?
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"Well, if Chelsea don't win tomorrow, all I can say is, someone's tapped up the ref."
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If Joe's late, he's stuck in traffic. - That is a zero conditional. It can be seen as what the speaker always concludes when Joe is late. To the speaker, that is the truth. While this can be thought of as what the speaker always concludes about Joe when he's late, it's possible that this sentence might apply to one specific circumstance as well. In this way, we might choose
to not see it as a zero conditional. However, if form serves as a definition, then it is a zero conditional.
Do you know what I mean?
How is your example sentence a zero conditional? In your sentence, it seems that the speaker is referring to one specific circumstance. If we put it in the form of a zero conditional, it doesn't really make sense, does it? Here's your example sentence. Both clauses use the simple present.
"Well, if Chelsea don't win tomorrow, all I can say is, someone taps up the ref."
In my sentence, both clauses use the simple present. We can deduce that the speaker is inferring something about Joe. The speaker can conclude something to be true based on what he or she knows about Joe. It's his or her viewpoint. We could conclude that this is what he always assumes to be the case if Joe is late.
Taking a look at your example sentence, we can see that the speaker can't make a similar type of logical inference based on what he or she knows about Chelsea.
What's an "extended zero conditional"? Why did you choose to use the term "extended zero conditional"?
By the way, if we are defining "zero conditional", a zero conditional uses the simple present.
As to your sentence, I don't know of a specific way of classifying it as a conditional. What do you call it?