could someone help me with conditionals..

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Rahul Malhotra  #279524  Thu, 12 Oct 06 09:38 AM
can we use present continuous tense, present perfect tense  in condiatinals. if so , please explain me with some examples.
  
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Mister Micawber  #279537  Thu, 12 Oct 06 09:49 AM

In Conditional 1, at least:

If I am going to Tokyo tomorrow, I will let you know.
If I have found her phone number in time, I will let you know.

  
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Rahul Malhotra  #281086  Sun, 15 Oct 06 07:10 AM

sir,

i have one more question to ask you. can we use modal verbs like would, could... in the condition of conditionals.?

if we can, how.

1."let me know what is confusing you"

2." may i know who is speaking"

3."do you know how many people are there in the class "

are the above sentences in the  correct form ?...  if they are  then ,what do we call the parts in the pink

 pls explain me briefly.

  
Mister Micawber  #281177  Sun, 15 Oct 06 12:13 PM

Hello, Rahul-- and a belated welcome to English Forums.


Yes, would and could can appear there:  If you would/could hold the door for me, I would be extremely grateful.

And in your three correctly formed sentences, the clauses in red are nominal clauses serving as objects of the verb know.

  
Rahul Malhotra  #281817  Mon, 16 Oct 06 07:54 PM

but, i dont know  why so many books on english grammar says that modals should not be used in the condition of conditionals and  can only be used in the result

how to know a word in a sentence whether it is in the adjective form or past participle form.?

because we say,

ex:

i got my shirt torn .

i had my purse stolen.

im disappointed.

you have not come prepared.

  
Marius Hancu  #281891  Mon, 16 Oct 06 11:27 PM
 Rahul Malhotra wrote:

but, i dont know  why so many books on english grammar says that modals should not be used in the condition of conditionals and  can only be used in the result

Often, this is caused by this situation where the above rule is correct:
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would have for had.  In spoken English, there is a growing tendency to use would have in place of the subjunctive had in contrary-to-fact clauses, such as If she would have (instead of if she had) only listened to me, this would never have happened. But this usage is still widely considered an error in writing. Only 14 percent of the Usage Panel accepts it in the previously cited sentence, and a similar amount—but 16 percent—accepts it in the sentence I wish you would have told me about this sooner.

The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/061.html
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