Tenses

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Yoong Liat

#282969 Thu, 19 Oct 06 11:49 AM

Which of the following sentences is correct?

If I knew Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

If I had known Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,100)

Yoong Liat

Inchoateknowledge

#282998 Thu, 19 Oct 06 01:42 PM

The second is correct, the first is not.

Inchoateknowledge

Joined on Wed, May 3 2006

Senior Member (2,537)

Beep! Beep! :)

milky

#283001 Thu, 19 Oct 06 01:53 PM

Inchoateknowledge wrote:
The second is correct, the first is not.

You'll find that many Americans use it.

milky

Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004

Senior Member (3,149)

Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought".

Tam Sadek

#283004 Thu, 19 Oct 06 02:01 PM

Actually both are correct.

The first one is an example of what is called a mixed conditional.

The second sentence is the one traditionally taught in most coursebooks.

Contrary to popular belief, their are more than four conditional structures. Mario Rinvolucri, the EFL guru(?), argued that there were over 90 variations of conditional structures in his book Grammar Games.

For more information, take a look at the British Council's Learn English website, or just do search for 'mixed conditionals' using any search engine.

However, be warned that below Upper Intermediate level most coursebooks (and many teachers) will wrongly tell you that the first is not correct!

Hope that helps...

Tam Sadek

Joined on Wed, Oct 4 2006

Full Member (265)

The more you see, the less you know...

Grammar, Conditionals, Learn English, Mixed Conditionals

Anonymous

#283009 Thu, 19 Oct 06 02:12 PM

Please explain the meaning

I know what mixed conditionals are, but they not always make sense.

Anonymous

Conditionals, Mixed Conditionals

Inchoateknowledge

#283011 Thu, 19 Oct 06 02:14 PM

Hello

what is the meaning of the first sentence? Smile [:)]

Inchoateknowledge

Marius Hancu

#283056 Thu, 19 Oct 06 03:38 PM

If I knew Mary was coming
is in practice used for both present and past times.

If I knew Mary was coming, I would go ot the airport. (present time)
If I knew Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her. (past time)

The 2nd usage (for past time) is less covered in the books, but used by many distinguished writers.

The classic:

If I had known Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

is seen by many as placing more temporal distance/precedence between knowing, the moment of decision, and going, i.e. I knew it some time before going.

Marius Hancu

Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006

Montreal, Canada

Veteran Member (11,673)

Inchoateknowledge

#283058 Thu, 19 Oct 06 03:42 PM

the first sentence is incoherent.

"If I knew Mary was coming
is in practice used for both present and past times."

distinguished writers insofar as they flagrantly violate established grammatical rules Smile [:)] .

Inchoateknowledge

Yoong Liat

#283073 Thu, 19 Oct 06 04:16 PM

1. If I knew Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

2. If I had known Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

To me, sentence 1 should be:

If I knew Mary was coming, I would go to the the airport to welcome her.

Sentence 2 is correct because of 'had known' should go with 'would have'. If I had known Mary was coming, I would have gone to the the airport to welcome her.

Yoong Liat

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