Is the sentence “Your safety would depend on how close you were to the animals” correct? I think “Your safety would depend on how close you would be to the animals” sounds more natural because there is no condition in the second part
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1
There is a condition. You can rephrase to find it. If you were far from the animals, you would be safe. If you were close to the animals, you would not be safe.
1
Great question — this is a subtle but important point! The original sentence is actually correct:
"Your safety would depend on how close you were to the animals."
In English, after verbs like *depend on, matter, vary* in conditional structures, we use the past simple (were, had, knew) rather than would be in the second part. This is the standard second conditional pattern:
would + verb → past simple
So "how close you would be" sounds logical but isn't how native speakers structure it. The "were" is doing the conditional work here, not "would."
Hope that helps!
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