If I ever made/make a mistake.

[Dharminder Singh]

Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

1. If I ever make a mistake, I'll resign from this job.
2. If I ever made a mistake, I'll resign from this job.

 

[emsr2d2]

Which one do you think is correct, and why?

 

[Dharminder Singh]

Which one do you think is correct, and why?

I think sentence 1 may be correct because we're talking about future.

 

[emsr2d2]

You're correct.

The correct form of sentence #2 is "If I ever made a mistake, I would resign".

 

[Dharminder Singh]

You're correct.

The correct form of sentence #2 is "If I ever made a mistake, I would resign".

But "would" is also used for future, then why do we use "made" with it?

 

[Piscean]

But "would" is also used for future, then why do we use "made" with it?

The move to 'past tense' forms, made and would, is used to indicate distancing in reality.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

The move to 'past tense' forms, made and would, is used to indicate distancing in reality.

Sorry I didn't get this. Please explain in a simpler language.

 

[Piscean]

The so-called 'past' tense is used to distance situations not only in time (present to past) but also in reality (real to less real/unreal).

If I make a mistake, I will resign. The possibility of making a mistake is real.
If I made a mistake, I would resign. The possibility of making a mistake is less real.
If I had made a mistake, I would have resigned. The possibility of making a mistake is zero; the situation is counterfactual - it didn't happen..

 

[Dharminder Singh]

The so-called 'past' tense is used to distance situations not only in time (present to past) but also in reality (real to less real/unreal).

If I make a mistake, I will resign. The possibility of making a mistake is real.
If I made a mistake, I would resign. The possibility of making a mistake is less real.
If I had made a mistake, I would have resigned. The possibility of making a mistake is zero; the situation is counterfactual - it didn't happen..

1. If I made a mistake, I would resign.

Is this sentence talking about a past situation or a future situation?

I am getting confused between whether we use "would" for past or for future. Please clarify this.

2. I would love to work in US.
Is this a future tense or a past tense?
I think it's future.

 

[jutfrank]

If I ever made a mistake, I'd resign from this job.

The fact that the speaker says 'this job' suggests that he is referring to his current job, in which case the sentence is about a hypothetical future.

If I ever made a mistake, I'd resign.

This is a bit different because we don't know if the speaker has the job or not. It could be that he doesn't, and fully believes he never will have, in which case it isn't even really about a hypothetical future. It exists in a kind of purely hypothetical time. But it could also be that he is talking about his present job, as with the first sentence, and that he's talking about a hypothetical future.

 

[jutfrank]

I am getting confused between whether we use "would" for past or for future. Please clarify this.

2. I would love to work in the US.
Is this a future tense or a past tense?
I think it's future.

You're not wondering about the tense, you're wondering about the meaning, which could be about the present time or a future time.

If you want to understand the meaning of these sentences better, you must look at them in context, where it's easier to see what the speaker is thinking about.

 

[tedmc]

I, too, used to wonder why the past tense is used when something didn't/hasn't happened. This form of conditional (second conditional) has nothing to do with the past. It is used to express an unlikely hypothetical scenario (unreal possibility), to distinguish it from the first conditional where something that is more likely to happen which uses the present tense. Read this.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

If I ever made a mistake, I'd resign from this job.

The fact that the speaker says 'this job' suggests that he is referring to his current job, in which case the sentence is about a hypothetical future.

If I ever made a mistake, I'd resign.

This is a bit different because we don't know if the speaker has the job or not. It could be that he doesn't, and fully believes he never will have, in which case it isn't even really about a hypothetical future. It exists in a kind of purely hypothetical time. But it could also be that he is talking about his present job, as with the first sentence, and that he's talking about a hypothetical future.

Why in sentence 2 speaker believes that he will never have a job?

 

[Piscean]

Why in sentence 2 speaker believes that he will never have a job?

Why does the speaker in the second sentence believe that he will never have a job?

We don't know that he believes that. jutfrank merely mentioned a theoretical possibility.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

You're not wondering about the tense, you're wondering about the meaning, which could be about the present time or a future time.

If you want to understand the meaning of these sentences better, you must look at them in context, where it's easier to see what the speaker is thinking about.

Yes, I'm wondering about the meaning.
1. You said it could be "present time". How can it be present? Don't we use " Would" for past?

2. What "context" are you talking about?

 

[Dharminder Singh]

The so-called 'past' tense is used to distance situations not only in time (present to past) but also in reality (real to less real/unreal).

If I make a mistake, I will resign. The possibility of making a mistake is real.
If I made a mistake, I would resign. The possibility of making a mistake is less real.
If I had made a mistake, I would have resigned. The possibility of making a mistake is zero; the situation is counterfactual - it didn't happen..

In sentence 2(highlighted red) how can you say that possibility of making mistake is less real?

 

[Piscean]

The use of the distancing tense makes the possibility less real, as I suggested in post #8.

 

[jutfrank]

1. You said it could be "present time". How can it be present? Don't we use " Would" for past?

Tell us why you think we use 'would' for past.

2. What "context" are you talking about?

The context is the words and sentences around the text. The most useful context for understanding any given sentence is typically what comes immediately before. Obviously, when you wrote your sentence I would love to work in the US, you didn't provide any context. Tell us who is saying this sentence and why. Then we might know whether the person is talking about the present or the future.

 

[Dharminder Singh]

Tell us why you think we use 'would' for past.



The context is the words and sentences around the text. The most useful context for understanding any given sentence is typically what comes immediately before. Obviously, when you wrote your sentence I would love to work in the US, you didn't provide any context. Tell us who is saying this sentence and why. Then we might know whether the person is talking about the present or the future.

Refer to the attached images. That's why I think we use "would" for past.

 

[Piscean]

I wrote in an earlier post:

The so-called 'past' tense is used to distance situations not only in time (present to past) but also in reality (real to less real/unreal).
".

Refer to the attached images. That's why I think we use "would" for past.

The pages you linked us two both say that 'would' is used for past times and for hypothetical/imagined situations.