The conditional mood is used in simple sentences

5.4.3.1. with implied condition:

And then you were surprised because she threw your slippers at you! I should have thrown the fire-irons at you (=if I had been in her place).

It would be tactless to mention the subject (=if I mentioned the subject).

The implied condition is not openly stated in the sentence. It is suggested either by an adverbial part of the sentence (a), or by the context (the preceding or the following sentence, a coordinated clause) (b):

a) "You are determined to accompany the expedition, Hastings?" "Oh, yes. I shouldn't be happy staying here inactive (=if I stayed here inactive).

In other circumstances she would have been killed instantly, as was D.O.Guerrero (=if the circumstances had been different).

b) "Well, I'm mighty glad you're here, Mr. Carlson. We'd probably have had to send for you otherwise (=if you weren't here).

Maxim tells me you only got back last night. I had not realized that, or of course we would never have thrust ourselves upon you so soon." (=if I had realized that).

The present conditional is used with reference to the present or future:

Kay said, "He's not the man I married." Hagen laughed shortly. "If he were, he'd be dead now. You'd be a widow now. You'd have no problem."

"A newspaper has offered me a hundred pounds." "I should not accept a hundred," said Poirot. "Be firm. Say five hundred is your price."

The past conditional is used when the situation refers to the past:

All the time he knew he was going to kill my husband. But he didn't dare while my father was alive. My father would have stopped him. He knew that.

Note. As the conditional mood can be used in any type of sentence, sentences with implied condition may be simple, compound, complex or compound with subordinate clauses. The implied unreal condition is understood from the sentence or the context.

– "Mr. Hitchcock would have liked this place," Pete agreed.

– "I would write to her, but I don't know her address".

"It would have occurred to most men," said Mrs. Chick, "that poor dear Fanny being no more, it becomes necessary to provide a nurse."

So it was very important to devise some kind of crucial experiment which would test the hypothesis.

– To write as we talk would be slipshod, to talk as we write would sound pedantic and unnatural.

5.4.3.2. The conditional mood is also used in simple sentences with an adverbial modifier of condition introduced by but for, except for, without. The unreal condition is not merely implied. It is expressed in the sentence by means of the adverbial modifier.

For all I knew he might be dead. Except for my friendship with Elliott, who reminded me of Larry, I should doubtless have forgotten his existence.

Without those powers, computer hacking would be almost impossible to prove.

And the real state of the case would never have been known at all in the regiment but for Captian Dobbin's indiscretion.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 1475