conditional II ? - "were to consider"

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Hi

If Dr. Hawks were to consider her still suffering from depression, that would be unhelpful to us.

Is there any grammar error in the above sentence? Is this an example of Conditional II?

thank you
 

Raymott

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Hi

If Dr. Hawks were to consider her still suffering from depression, that would be unhelpful to us.

Is there any grammar error in the above sentence? Is this an example of Conditional II?

thank you
It's not a good sentence. Do you mean, "If Dr. Hawks were to consider that she still suffers from depression ..."?
Even so, there's an ambiguity about whether "she" refers to Dr. Hawks herself or to a patient.

It would be unhelpful for us if Dr Hawks considered [were to consider] that Ms B. was still suffering from depression.

Yes, it's Conditional 2.
 
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vil

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Hi….

Here is a similar sentence written from the great Dickens.

If I were to offer my home… my station…my attentions… to any one among the young women engaged in my calling, they would probably be accepted.

I think that your sentence isn’t half so bad.

If Dr. Hawks were to consider her still suffering from depression, that would be unhelpful to us.

In my humble opinion an unreal condition reffering to the future can be expressed by the Past Subjunctive of the veb to be + to-Infinitive of the notional verb.

Regards,

V.
 

Raymott

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Hi….

Here is a similar sentence written from the great Dickens.

If I were to offer my home… my station…my attentions… to any one among the young women engaged in my calling, they would probably be accepted.

I think that your sentence isn’t half so bad.

If Dr. Hawks were to consider her still suffering from depression, that would be unhelpful to us.

In my humble opinion an unreal condition reffering to the future can be expressed by the Past Subjunctive of the veb to be + to-Infinitive of the notional verb.

Regards,

V.
The difficulty is in a part of the sentence which doesn't occur in the Dickens quote.
My problem is with "... consider her still suffering ...", not "were to consider".
In fact, you'll note that I gave this as an option.
"It would be unhelpful for us if Dr Hawks considered [were to consider] that Ms B. was still suffering from depression.
"

It could also be fixed like this:
If Dr. Hawks were to consider her to still be suffering from depression, that would be unhelpful to us.
or " ... consider her to be still suffering ..."

I can see that some people might consider "I consider her still suffering from depression" alright. However, I prefer the version with "to be". I think it far more common these days.
 
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