subjunctive conditional

[learner110]

Hi,

Is it correct to say " If I had known he had had money, I would not have given him anything"

or

"If I had known he had some money, I would not have given him anything"

normally when we talk about unrealistic situation in present, we use simple past tense (subjuntive mood) as in the example below:

If I knew he were sick, I would take him to the hospital.

but If we wanna say the same thing about unrealistic situation in future, how would we say , would not it be correct to use present tense in the sentence such as

If I knew he is (instead of were) sick, I would take him to the hospital.

 

[5jj]

Hi,

Is it correct to say " If I had known he had had money, I would not have given him anything" In this utterance, the possession of the money was a situation that existed at some time before the gift.

or

"If I had known he had some money, I would not have given him anything"
Here the possession and the gift happen at the same time.

normally when we talk about an unrealistic situation in the present, we use a simple past tense (subjuntive mood) as in the example below:

If I knew he were sick, I would take him to the hospital.

but If we wanna say the same thing about an unrealistic situation in the future, how would we say , wouldn[STRIKE]o[/STRIKE]'t it be correct to use a present tense in the sentence such as

If I knew he is (instead of were) sick, I would take him to the hospital.
No. The so-called 'Second Conditional' can refer to present or future time. Context and/or co-text will tell us which is intended.

Note that for most speakers of English, the Subjunctive Mood does not exist, except in certain fossilised expressions. For all verbs except BE the past subjunctive form (assuming it exists) has the same form as the indicative. Many speakers would use was where you have used were. Were is correct, and some would argue that it is the only correct form; that does not stop millions of people, including educated people, happily using was.