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Editor: Douglas Adams |
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Present Unreal Conditionals The basic formula for a present unreal conditional has the simple past or past continuous tense in the dependent clause and a modal [usually would, could, should, or might plus a base verb in the independent clause as can be seen in the diagram below. 
As mentioned in the previous lesson on present unreal conditionals , they are basically used to describe things that are imagined, or put another way, things we don't think would actually happen. Thus the choice of using a future real or a present unreal can usually tell us what the speaker/writer believes about the situation. Inverted Present Unreal Conditionals: We can make the present unreal with the simple past or with the past continuous in the dependent clause. When it comes to inverting, the simple past is an exception to the normal formula that all the other unreal conditionals follow. Thus, for the purposes on clarity, I like to start with the continuous tense and come back to the simple past. The basic rule for inverting present (and past) unreal conditionals is to delete "if" and move the first part of the verb to the front of the sentence. For example, If Tom were planning a party, he would invite Jessica. This same example can also be expressed in an inverted form. Were Tom planning a party, he would invite Jessica. In this example, the first part of the verb is the word "were", so that word gets moved to the front of the sentence. We can also make this example passive and then invert the passive conditional using the same formula as we used above. For example, If a party were being planned by Tom, he would invite Jessica. This same example can also be expressed in an inverted form. Were a party being planned by Tom, he would invite Jessica. In this example, the first part of the verb is still the word "were", so only that word gets moved to the front of the sentence. The exception: the simple past active When inverting the present unreal with the simple past our verb only has one part to it so we can't just simply move that part to the front of the sentence. We need a different formula: Replace "if" with "were" and change the verb to an infinitive. For example, If Tom invited Jessica to his party, she would bring burgers. The inverted form becomes... Were Tom to invite Jessica to his party, she would bring burgers. *Special Note: As with the other examples, we can also make this one passive. When we do so, our verb will now have two parts to it, so we can use the normal formula to invert it. For example, If Jessica were invited by Tom to his party, she would bring burgers. This example can be inverted by deleting "if" and moving the first part of the verb to the front to become... Were Jessica invited to his party by Tom, she would bring burgers. Next up... Inverted Past Unreal Conditionals |
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