Scotty
About The Second Conditional. I got sime problems with the second easay. I made some sentence yesterday and a teacher helped me to chech my sentences. But still have some question for the second conditional. 1. If I (had) learnt all the English grammar rules, I would be very pleased. My original sentence don't have a "had", this "had" is added by the teachher. I don't know why. Because my grammar book says, for the second conditional, we should use past simple tense but not past perfect tense on the condition part . Could tell me why there should be a "had". 2. If a the second conditional was(or were) not called “second conditional”, it might have another name. Is that right to use a "was"here. Or every "bes" should be replaced into "were" I am really confused by this. Thanks.
21 nov 2019 01:00
Risposte · 12
1. "If I learned all the English grammar rules, I would be very pleased" is correct and, without a specific context, would generally be interpreted as someone who hopes to eventually (at some point in the future) learn all of the English grammar rules. In this case, even though "learned" is the past tense, it is implied that the person is talking about the future because of the conditional statement "would be" in the second half of the sentence. The person is not pleased now, but once they have learned all of the English grammar rules, they will be pleased. You could also use the present tense and say "If I learn all the English grammar rules, I would be very pleased" to the same effect. "If I had learned all the English grammar rules, I would have been very pleased" is also correct, but definitely refers to a situation in the past. For example, a student who was trying to learn English, but is not doing so anymore, might use this sentence to describe how they felt at the time that they were trying to learn English. "If I had learned all of the English grammar rules, I would be very pleased" does not sound quite right. It sounds like it is a mix of the first two. The first half sounds like is describing the past, while the second half sounds like it is describing the a future condition that has not yet occurred. Overall, it does not seem like a terrible mistake and you would still be understood. 2. "If the second conditional was not called 'second conditional', it might have another name" is correct. "Was" is correct in this sentence because the subject (the second conditional) is singular. "Were" would only be used for a plural subject. For example, "If verbS were not called verbs, they might have another name" Another singular example, "If a noun was not called a noun, it might have another name" The subject (a noun) is singular and therefore the verb (was) is in the singular form.
21 novembre 2019
1. Your sentence without “had” is the correct form of the second conditional (an unreal present). With “had” in the if-clause and no “have” in the then-clause, it is a mixed conditional: Contrary to fact past with unreal consequences in the present. “If I had learned all the English grammar rules in the past (but I did not), I would be very pleased in the present (but I’ am not). 2. It’s correct to use “were” in the second conditional for all grammatical persons. These days, people often just use the indicative “was”. It depends on the speaker and the formality of the situation, but Americans are generally more conservative on this, with even educated UK speakers tending to use the subjunctive “were” rarely if at all. You may enjoy reading my relevant mini-articles. If you have further questions, fee free to join the discussions: Grammar boost: Conditionals cheat sheet PART 1 https://www.italki.com/discussion/164505 Mini-article: US versus UK — GRAMMAR https://www.italki.com/discussion/170637
21 novembre 2019
If I learnt(learned) all the grammar rules in English , I would be very pleased. or If I had learnt(learned) all the grammar rules in English, I would have been very pleased.
21 novembre 2019
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