If I Weren't Late, I Wouldn't Be Fired.

Haven't you received an answer here?
http://www.EnglishForward.com/English/IWouldntFiredWouldUnemployed/bzkmjq/post.htm

If not, that would have been a better place to additional questions about this very phrase.

BarbaraPAHaven't you received an answer here?

Don't be silly, Barb!

You should know by now that receiving an answer in one thread/forum/site is not going to stop sb asking an identical or very similar question elsewhere.

sb70012If I weren't late, I wouldn't be fired. This sentence tells us: a. I am late and the boss will sack me. or b. I am late and the boss has sacked me already.a is the paraphrase of the blue sentence or b?

There is a lot to be considered in the underlined sentence. Was passive voice used affectlively? Did you intend to use subjunctive or indicative, positive or negative logic etc. all came into play when you try to form an "if" idea that people can understand.
I see it like this. Tell me if I am wrong: The writer's current employment status is not 100% clear because of the way the words were put together in the sentence. However, based on the existing text, I take it that the red underlined said " if you came to work on time, you would not be fired" . if this indicative version is established, then the above could be read indicatively as " you have been fired because you were (habitually) late .

I don't believe neither A or B can be called "paraphrase" of the main sentence, which ( in my opinion) was constructed logically incorrect, not to mention the tense incompatibility. If you were indeed fired because your boss said your were late (so many times), and you believed this was untrue; then the sentence should be " If I were not late ( as often as he claimed), I should not be fired".

Just food for thoughts .....

Barb, in the link you have mentioned, we have talked about mixed time conditional, not second conditional.

Thank you grammarfreak.

sb70012If I weren't late, I wouldn't be fired. This sentence tells us: a. I am late and the boss will sack me. or b. I am late and the boss has sacked me already.a is the paraphrase of the blue sentence or b?

The sentence does not tell us "I am late". The sentence only considers the possibility of my being late. It has nothing to do with really being late. The sentence says that if I continue not to be late, I have nothing to fear with regard to the boss's firing me. It's a more hypothetical version of If I'm not late, I won't be fired.

CJ

Calif, thank you. You said that the sentence doesn't tell us that "I'm late"
But why in this sentence:
If I knew the answer, I would tell you. (If I knew the answer = means that I don't know the answer.)
So, shouldn't we say that "If I weren't lat" means "I'm late"? I mean according to the above example?

CalifJimIt's a more hypothetical version of If I'm not late, I won't be fired.

Hi Jim,
This is the point I was trying to make, but of course much less eloguently. I am curious as to how you would perceive the original sentence. Has the firing already been done ?