"If we take a poll, we are going to figure out what woud be the righ answer."
Can I mix the progressive form of the future simple tense and the "would ..." part in one sentence providing there is still some doubt about the resuslt being correct?
Last edited by ostap77; 25-Aug-2011 at 17:54.
No, the correct sentence (assuming a correct answer exists now) is : "If we take a poll, we will figure out what the right answer is."
You can't take a poll to discover what something will be in the future. Politicians know this. Polls tell you what people think at the time of the poll - ie. what the answer is.
Of course, if you mean that the right answer will become what the majority wants, it's ok: "If we take a poll, we will figure out what the colour will be" - because you are going to paint it the most popular colour.
Last edited by ostap77; 25-Aug-2011 at 18:07.
So you mean, "We are going to take a poll to find out what the right answer would be if we took a poll"?
It depends on whether the poll is 100% likely to give you the right answer. And that can only happen if the right answer is defined by the poll.
Can you give a scenario that describes the sentence you want? - "If we take a poll, we are going to figure out what the right answer would be." But you still seem to have a conditional sentence without a condition.
If we take a poll in a TV studio in Ukraine with "president of Ukraine" present , there might be some people not willing to expres their true feelings because of them being afraid of loosing certain "benefits". So the poll wouldn't be 100% likely to give me the correct answer?
Last edited by ostap77; 25-Aug-2011 at 18:50.
A politician, preparing for a debate or interview. He takes a poll so that he can know what the "popular" answer is, so that if he is asked the question, he knows what the right answer would be .Can you give a scenario that describes the sentence you want? - "If we take a poll, we are going to figure out what the right answer would be."