Really Mixed Conditionals

[hanyelblasy]

if he was such a good doctor, he should (have to)( its a must to)have diagnosed the illnes, but if he was not such a good doctor he would not have diagnosed the illness.

[çakırpençe]

Originally Posted by RonBee

For number two I would say, "If he was such a good doctor he would have diagnosed the illness." (presumably, he didn't diagnose the illness.)

Originally Posted by dduck

The second example makes no sense to me.

I'd think it should be:

"If he were such a good doctor, he would have diagnosed the illness"

Iain

Then, is it "If he was or were a good doctor"?
Which one is more proper?
(((and proper or appropriate :)))) ???

[Tdol]

In formal language 'were' is preferred. In less formal langauge either can be used.

[salas1907]

hi every one! I think it is 'should have 'it cant be' would have done '.... Because we use 'would have done' in type 3 in conditional sentences.should have done in this sentence does not indicate past....

[laureljohnescu]

Originally Posted by RonBee

For number two I would say, "If he was such a good doctor he would have diagnosed the illness." (presumably, he didn't diagnose the illness.)

This doesn't make sense because it makes it sound like he is not a doctor anymore, which is not stated.

[Rwanbedo]

Hello everyone. can anyone show me the difference between ( ton - and tonne ")

thanks a lot

[RonBee]

Originally Posted by Rwanbedo

Hello everyone. can anyone show me the difference between ( ton - and tonne ")

They are different spellings of the same word. One is AE ("ton") and the other is BE ("tonne").

~R

[diana monzon]

Originally Posted by dduck

The second example makes no sense to me.

I'd think it should be:

"If he were such a good doctor, he would have diagnosed the illness"

Iain

Yeah! I agree with what you say=) is he is such a good doctor he would diagnose the illness' it sounds like future and we are saying what he didin't

[aggelos]

If he is such a good doctor...: the use of the present tense here is supposed to mean something to this effect: People say he is a very good doctor. Ok, I'll accept that, but why then did he fail to diagnose the illness? If was/were had been used, this part of the meaning would have been lost.

[Wuisi]

Difficult. I chose that one because the other one refers to past time and would require 'If he were' as a condition-clause; but I would find it hard to give a reason for 'should' in the main clause, perhaps 'expectation', but I'm not really sure.
There's something I must be doing wrong because I can't get access to the other posts in the thread before sending in mine. What's the real procedure, you read them and then you vote or just the other way round?. I say so, because maybe I'm saying things that have already been said and discussed, in that case, sorry and forgive me for being so clumsy. Thanks.