Hi,
Are all sentences that have if-clauses and the main clauses with the modal 'would' second conditional? I think not. Mr. Wordy wrote these sentences in his replay to a question that dealt with a quote.
I would call something "a quote" or "a quotation" only if it was actually quoting what someone had said.
If it was a quotation of what someone had said, then I might alternatively say "open quote" and "close quote".
I don't think the first one is conditional since I don't think "only if" is the same as the word "if" -- looks like a plain statement like here.
I would bring donuts only if you are going to pay for them. No need to write it as "I would bring donuts only if you were going to pay for them".Right?
But the second sentence seems like he had a choice: he could have made it unreal, but to me, he didn't since to him it represented real context. So, my position is that not all sentences that have if-clauses and main clauses with a modal "would" are unreal second conditional. Right?
One extra example for another question:
If we can't get this place and were going to do a seminar, then it could be OK.
Setting aside the issue of contextual clarity, if we could, I wonder what conditional this is, first or second? If I look at the modal "can" in the if-clause, then looks to be first; but if I look at "were" going" in the if-clause, then, second would seem to be the one. Which conditional is this? Having two tenses in the if-clause OK?