If fewer you people are moving ..., there could ...

[duiter]

Dear all,

If fewer young people are moving into teaching as profession, there could several reasons for this trend.

Why doesn't the writer use were ?
Is this a conditional sentence ?

If fewer young people were moving into teaching as profession, there could several reasons for this trend.

Many thanks

[5jj]

The writer has chosen to present it as a real possibility.

[duiter]

Thanks for you answer

Then, why doesn't the writer says........,there will be several reasons for this trend.

[5jj]

Because 'will' would indicate the writer's certainty; 'could'' indicates that the writer thinks that there is only a possibility of there being several reasons, dependent on the possibility of fewer people moving into teaching.

[emsr2d2]

If fewer young people are moving ... present tense conditional
there could be several reasons ... present tense possibility


If fewer young people were moving into the area, there could have been several reasons ... = past tense

If fewer young people start moving into the area, there might be several reasons ... = future "tense".

[5jj]

If fewer young people are moving ... present tense conditional
there could be several reasons ... present tense possibility

If fewer young people were moving into the area, there could have been several reasons ... = past tense

If fewer young people start moving into the area, there might be several reasons ... = future "tense".

I don't find the labels too helpful there. It is true that ‘could’ is frequently use for present-time possibility, but I don’t think we can call it a’ present tense’ form. I also don’t think we can call any of the forms in the last example 'future tense' even if we do put the word tense in inverted commas.

I'd go for :

If fewer young people are moving ... present tense verb, present time conditional clause
there could be several reasons ... modal verb indicating present-time possibility

If fewer young people were moving into the area, there could have been several reasons ... = past tense verb, past time conditional clause; modal verb indicating past-time possibility

If fewer young people start moving into the area, there might be several reasons ... present tense verb , future time conditional clause; modal verb indicating future-time possibility.