Viola
Questionable sentence with "were" Hi! I listened to an English lesson today, and in the lesson there was a sentence that is not completely clear to me. I copied it in context, but the questionable sentence is the second sentence in the text: "A “social secretary” is a person whose job it is to manage someone’s social appointments – where they go to lunch, the parties they attend, and so forth. Normally, only a very rich or important person would have a social secretary, someone who would handle things that were not related to the person’s business life, but to his or her personal life." So, I don't understand that in the second sentence, why "were" is used instead of "are"? I think that this sentence is not in past simple tense. I thought about whether it is conditional, because of the usage of "would have" and "would handle", but I think it isn't a conditional either. Which grammar is it? Do you happen to know? Thanks in advance!
18 сент. 2019 г., 15:22
Ответы · 6
1
Hi Viola As I see, you are right. It is due to the conditional. “Normally, only a very rich or important person would have a social secretary”. See this sentence as “If you were a very rich or important person you would have a social secretary” Then you could say: “...a social secretary, someone who handle things that are no related to...” , but conditional makes it to change to “...a social secretary, someone who would handle things that were no related to...” I hope it helps
18 сентября 2019 г.
Thank you Gary. I’m trying to improve my answers. Please feel free to correct my mistakes.
19 сентября 2019 г.
It is conditional. It's a pity Leonardo's answer is confusing and full of spelling errors.
19 сентября 2019 г.
You are describing what a secretary does and matching would with were but you could use the present tense if you use it for both. For example someone who handles (present tense ) that are ( present tense) not related..... It is not conditional
18 сентября 2019 г.
I believe it is sequence od tenses, there is "would handle" which is past, so "are" becomes "were" But I might be wrong
18 сентября 2019 г.
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