From one on-line grammar page: U se conditional sentences to speculate about the future result of a condition that is not true in the present . In this type of conditional sentence, the subordinate clause contains the past-tense verb 'were'

1-- With no further context it is present, the polite form in common use. The past habitual is possible but much less common. 2-- Past habitual... unless it is in a conditional sentence. Supplying short clauses out of context is of questionable

Is would in the result clause of the second conditional another example of a past view-point verb being borrowed into the present viewpoint? Yes. That's how I view it. CJ

Does anybody here know of a rule that doesn't involve looking at "would" as a conditional? Yes. It's the rule that governs all modal verbs regardless of their use or meaning. A modal verb must be followed by a base form (that is,

Hi, Anon (I think if you asked specific questions along with the text, people may know what exactly you want to know. From your postings, it is hard to know if you are asking about the subjunctive, conditionals, or just the correctness of

I agree! I just read over the zero conditional, and it looks most like the present zero conditional. Only, instead of the present simple in the if clause, a modal exists. Cheers

That doesn't mean there aren't many, many other unnamed kinds. A very common one is the one you see here, where both clauses are in the past tense (not subjunctive). This pattern is used to talk about a relationship between things that

The "if" subjunctive variety was not the main issue here. At this juncture, we are not particularly concerned about the "if" conditionals, or degree of possibility and certainty. Perhaps that's another topic. The heavy

I f we could ask for your cooperation, would you all please remain seated until your row has been called. ... which category does it fit into: first or second conditional? Neither. There are thousands of sentences with if that do not fall into one

I f we could ask for your cooperation, would you all please remain seated until your row has been called.” The first conditional uses the present tense in the if clause and will + infinitive in the result clause, whereas the second