[Grammar] If/suppose I had met your brother (Nick), I would say...

[NAL123]

Friend: what does "bump into someone" mean?

Trying to explain to him what the phrase means, I say:

Using second conditional:

1) Me: If/suppose I met (or were to meet) your brother (Nick) somewhere unexpectedly, I would say, "I bumped into Nick." (both the meeting and the saying are in the imagined future)

Using third conditional:

2) Me: If/suppose I had met your brother (Nick) somewhere unexpectedly, I would have said, "I bumped into Nick." (both the meeting and the saying are in the imagined past)

Using mixed conditional:

3) Me: If/suppose I had met your brother (Nick) somewhere unexpectedly, I would say, "I bumped into Nick." (the meeting is in the imagined past but the saying is in the imagined present/future)

Q1) Can I say any one of them? Are they all equivalent?

Q2) Can I use a time adverbial like this: I would say/would have said, "I bumped into Nick an hour ago/yesterday/two days ago etc."

 

[5jj]

A1) Yes. No.
A") Yes.

 

[NAL123]

A1) Yes. No.
A") Yes.

Do sometimes people omit "had", and just use the simple past "met", from sentences (2) and (3) in informal speech?

 

[Tarheel]

Not just sometimes.

 

[5jj]

Do sometimes people omit "had", and just use the simple past "met", from sentences (2) and (3) in informal speech?

I think this is more common in AmE than BrE.

If I knew you were coming ...

 

[jutfrank]

I think 1 (second conditional) does the best job.

Suppose I were to meet your brother Nick somewhere unexpectedly. I'd say "I bumped into Nick".

I also think that 3 is marginally close behind 1, but that 2 is not really good. Why would you want to put the result clause (the saying) in the imagined past? It belongs firmly in imaginary general time as far as I'm concerned, as it is in 1 and 3.