By Mixed conditionals, Past tenses

>I thihk the modal 'could' and possibly 'would' have some differing uses.could: about ability, would: about willingnessThe first is a mixed conditional, similar to what you can find on this page:http://www.englishpage.com/conditional/mixedconditional.htmlThis is one of the...

A) Are there any verbs that are usually not backshifted, and the whole sentence is rearranged instead? I think you mentioned "should". For example, if someone says "I should see a doctor", the reported version would be "He said he had to see a doctor" or "He said he'd better see a doctor" or...

Hi Jack,my try:I would not put myself in a position where I jeopardized the people working for me, or those for whom I worked, for the sake of vanity.I don't know the exact terms to refer to those words. Let's say those two "past tenses" are kind of like two "subjunctives" or "unreality past...

Tlzone08 wrote:I thought you can use "If I have money, I will help you." OK and "If I have money, I would help you." No, that's not OK Here, HAVE is the present tense, and WOULD is the past tense. In the sentence above, 'would help' is conditional (i.e. 'would' is not the...

Thanks for your reply, MrP. 1. I would call it an exclamatory conditional. The main clause is left unspoken, but we can usually infer it, e.g. "if only she would contact me, I would be very happy". Ok, it’s a conditional with an unexpressed result but still a ‘conditional’ right? In this case,...

I am confused by the difference of these sentences. A:If you finish the homework, you could go out with me. B:If you finished the homework, you could go out with me. Are they correct in grammar? If so, would you please tell me the difference? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Yes Yoko, they are both...

If I'm correct, you would have had such hybrids banned from the very beginning, Mr. P.! Is this a mixed conditional, though? I'm not sure the action in the main clause is directly dependent on the IF clause. I'd call it an ellipsis of some kind: 1. If I'm correct, if you had had your way, you...

I'd choose #1 as well: 1. Jack wouldn't drive fast on a road where he didn't know how long it was. This is in effect a type 2 conditional. It means that Jack (in our opinion) is unlikely to drive fast on a road if he doesn't know how long it is. Using 'would' + past tense makes the sentence...

Hmm. I think I would say: c) He was sitting in silence, drinking in her words. 'He sat silent' seems ok; but 'he was sitting silent' doesn't seem right. The combination of progressive tense + adjective strikes me as odd. Back to Q3: "If any friend ever felt an interest almost selfish for a...

Hello Hela 1“Altogether, and so is the house in Portman Square. There never was anything more sad or desolate. You a) would find a) is the mixed conditional possible here or not ? = the speaker is not sure that Mr Finn is going to succeed but if ever this happened he is sure of Mrs Kennedy’s...