Second conditional question

[Javerage]

Hi there,
I Was wondering if anyone could help me with the following.

What is the form/structure for this item? (Don't analyse this too much grammatically - chunk it... i.e. Don't analyse this functional exponent as a second conditional)

If I were you, I'd go to Japan.

The reason I'm confused, is because I'm relatively sure it is a second conditional. So I have no idea what they mean. What is it that I'm misunderstanding here?

Thanks in advance.

[Verona_82]

*not a teacher*
Indeed, your sentence is a second conditional. They are used to talk about imaginary (unreal) situations in the present or future.

We use a past tense in the if-clause and would/could/might + bare infinitive in the main clause.

The pattern 'if I were you, I'd... " is often used to give advice. Your sentence looks like a piece of advice.

[Javerage]

*not a teacher*
Indeed, your sentence is a second conditional. They are used to talk about imaginary (unreal) situations in the present or future.

We use a past tense in the if-clause and would/could/might + bare infinitive in the main clause.

The pattern 'if I were you, I'd... " is often used to give advice. Your sentence looks like a piece of advice.

But that's what bugs me. I'm suppose to analyse it differently. If not for what they said, I would've gone ahead and just put down the second conditional form. *sigh* I think I'll do it anyway, every question is so vague that I just want to bang my head against a wall.

Thanks though

[Rob1973]

Can someone please explain why we use the simple past in the 2nd Conditional? For example " If I had no internet access for a month I would go crazy"

[Tdol]

We move to the past tense as it shows that the present we're talking about is imaginary or unlikely if it's future.