ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Provided that

CalifJim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:53:19 GMT

pedrina
After reading your reply, I asked the teacher who made this question to rewrite it in a more adequate way.

Good idea!

Re: Provided that

pedrina — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:15:57 GMT

Thank you CJ,

It was a question in a test that I gave to my students. After reading your reply, I asked the teacher who made this question to rewrite it in a more adequate way.

Re: Provided that

CalifJim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:49:16 GMT

pedrina
Is it possible to use "provided that" for sentences in the simple past?

Yes, but it's not as common as the present. The provided that clause normally occurs after the main clause.

The government decided to allow the researchers to continue provided that their projects were fully funded by the private sector.

The farmers believed that they might still obtain a good harvest provided that it rained every day for the rest of the season.

Tom was permitted to use any of the tools in the workshop provided that he returned them to their proper place after using them.

as long as may substitute for provided that.

Re: Provided that

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:06:01 GMT

"Provided that" is almost the same as "if". Anything you can say with "If it rained every day", you can do the same with "Provided..."

Provided that

pedrina — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:23:12 GMT

Is it possible to use "provided that" for sentences in the simple past? If it is possible, do we have to use the sentence with both verbs in the same tense? I know it works as a conditional sentence but it sounds strange to me in the past. How could I complete the following sentence?

"Provided that it rained everyday, .........."