Condition and reported speech

[zz3zz3]

Hello,

Could someone please explain to me which conditional (if-clause) is used in the following sentence:

She promised to help, if she could.

Thanks in advance.

[sarat_106]

Hello,

Could someone please explain to me which conditional (if-clause) is used in the following sentence:

She promised to help, if she could.

Thanks in advance.

In your sentence the 'if clause 'if she could' does not specify/introduce any condition. The main clause 'She promised to help' can be the result with an appropriate cause introduced by the ‘if clause’. So you could convert to II type conditional by saying;
If she had the money, she promised to help.

[philo2009]

Hello,

Could someone please explain to me which conditional (if-clause) is used in the following sentence:

She promised to help, if she could.

Thanks in advance.

It is a variant first conditional, since it is equivalent to saying

She promised that she would help if she could (help).

whose original utterance would have been

I will help if I can.

[zz3zz3]

Thank you both for your answers.

@Sarat: Doesn't if she could imply the condition if she could help (could as in be able to)?

@Philo: So if I understand correctly, both parts of sentence She will help, if she can (first conditional) backshift the tenses to she would help, if she could because of reported speech?

Also why is She promised to help, if she could variant correct? Is it because reporting verb promise can also have pattern verb + to infinitive and that rule of reported speech can override rules for building conditionals (if + present simple, ... will/won't for 1st conditional)?

[sarat_106]

Thank you both for your answers.

@Sarat: Doesn't if she could imply the condition if she could help (could as in be able to)?

Yes, it can be but in that case the main clause will be different as explained by Plilo2009 in the subsequent post.

[philo2009]

Thank you both for your answers.

@Sarat: Doesn't if she could imply the condition if she could help (could as in be able to)?

@Philo: So if I understand correctly, both parts of sentence She will help, if she can (first conditional) backshift the tenses to she would help, if she could because of reported speech?

Also why is She promised to help, if she could variant correct? Is it because reporting verb promise can also have pattern verb + to infinitive and that rule of reported speech can override rules for building conditionals (if + present simple, ... will/won't for 1st conditional)?

Yes, it is simply a backshifted first conditional and the construction 'promise to do' is a natural equivalent to 'promise that...will do'.

[zz3zz3]

Thank you!

[chellamuthu]

Thank you!

Hi Philo!Thank you!

[philo2009]

Hi Philo!Thank you!