By Conditionals, Difference between

But if I were to use one of these ones, would it matter which one I use? So what's the difference between these two? 1. What do they do if there were an emergency? (Imaginary? ) 2. What do they do if there is an emergency? (Future?) For my question at the top, Is 'use' correct? Or is it...

Hellow Zewu I'm an English learner from Japan. I am afraid I don't know much about English enough to answer such questions as those you are asking. But allow me to put my two cents worth. First of all, let me define some grammatical terms. In English, people usually say 'subjunctive mood' for...

〖Sotto voce: Quietly crossing the stage, uncertainly mumbling〗 'Reference to subsequent events' is not always to be called 'future reference,' especially in conditionals. Sequence of events can be expressed in various ways, with various nuances. By word order, for example. Truth-conditionally...

Afterthought: I wonder though whether logic can account for all the cases of conditional IF we may meet with. For instance, I see a difference between these two cases, which I'm not sure I can express in terms of logic: _____________________________________ 1. All men are mortal. If...

Hello MrPedantic, CalifJim! Modality & conditional are not my favorite subjects, but I hope I wouldn't bother your discussion if I add here a few words. (I beg your pardon in advance: I will ignore here completely the problem of subjunctive or other matters, peculiar to English...

Hello Jim CalifJim wrote: Do we mean the difference between if that truly means if and if that means since or given that?Hypothetical if and indicative if, respectively? That's a useful distinction. Moreover, #1 above could (a little stiffly) take a present subjunctive in the IF clause ('if...

MrP, I'm a bit uneasy calling an IF-clause a non-condition, since IF is the prototypical way of showing that a condition exists. I do know (I think exactly, in fact) what you mean, but the division into conditional IF and non-conditional IF introduces some awkward terminology. My two...

Hello Teachers I am still now thinking over this matter. What I am stuck on is what is the difference between simple "if p then q" and "only if p then q". I know "if and only if" is different from simple "if". I understand "if and only if p then q" is a biconditional expression- "if p then q"...

I'm wondering if one could use subjunctive mood in such a clear logical statement. OED contains 155 quotes using "only if" and all of them except one ... indicative mood in the only if clause. In my opinion, the use of indicative or subjunctive is irrelevant to clear logic. Logical statements...

In my idiolect, the inversion is obligatory. There just may be speakers who accept it without the inversion. Both your sentences are "Second Conditional", so I'm not following the rest of the question very well. "could" neutralizes the difference between "were able to" and "would be able to". ...