Timeline for Future tense in conditional clauses
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 14, 2021 at 22:23 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | @user1425, I'm afraid I don't get that interpretation. | |
| Mar 13, 2021 at 22:07 | comment | added | user1425 | @Brett Reynolds Of course, it's not because of the fact that the if clause is placed first. It can be placed second with the same effect. The decisive point is that "if" clause contains "will". | |
| Mar 13, 2021 at 22:01 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | @user1425 Sorry for misunderstanding you! Still, though, it's fine for me. I don't get any ordering effect. That is, just because the "if" clause is placed first doesn't mean it occurs first. | |
| Mar 12, 2021 at 20:23 | comment | added | user1425 | @Brett Reynolds I never said it wasn't futurate. They all are. The point is which follows which. You have to quit drinking FIRST. But you suggest quitting drinking after quitting drinking saves your marriage. It doesn't work that way. | |
| Mar 12, 2021 at 19:31 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | @user1425 actually, I would disagree. The second clause "if it saves my marriage" is futurate, and perfectly common. | |
| Mar 11, 2021 at 18:56 | comment | added | user1425 | @Brett Reynolds I will stop drinking if it will save my marriage. or I will stop drinking if it saves my marriage. I think you won't disagree that only the first one makes sense. | |
| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| Jan 13, 2020 at 17:20 | comment | added | HeWhoMustBeNamed | @BrettReynolds, why is "If it will rain later, I'll bring my umbrella" ungrammatical? And do you think it's ungrammatical in all contexts, or does a sentence like this work: "If -- as the weather reports said today morning -- it will rain later, I'll bring my umbrella"? | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 15:43 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Brett: that's true, but it still feels to me like that will signifies the future. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 13:19 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | The point is that you don't need both meaning and sequence to explain this. Meaning will do. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 12:42 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Brett Reynolds, Consider the sentence "I will pay for the repairs if they will keep the building from falling down in the next earthquake." Here you need the will because the next earthquake is in the future, while in a sentence like "I will pay for the repairs if they (will) make the building safer", the will is optional. If you leave out the will in the first sentence, it sounds like you are refusing to pay for them until after the next earthquake. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 9:17 | comment | added | Mustafa | @Brett Reynolds, please see my edit. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 9:11 | history | edited | Mustafa | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 4, 2012 at 3:00 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | What's the evidence? | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 2:54 | comment | added | Peter Shor | Both the order and the meaning of will play a role here. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 2:46 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | Yes, the problem is with the meaning of will, not with the order in which things happen. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 2:36 | comment | added | Peter Shor | I believe that the rule for case c) is that when the "if" clause is a prediction, you must use "going to", but when the "if" clause is a consequence of the action in the main clause, you can use "will" | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 2:25 | comment | added | Peter Shor | @Brett: the order certainly has something to do with the tense you use. You shouldn't say "if it rains later, I'll bring my umbrella". You'd say "if it's going to rain later", the other future verb construction in English. | |
| Feb 4, 2012 at 1:45 | comment | added | Brett Reynolds | I'm afraid, c) is wrong. The order has nothing to do with it. Consider, *if it will rain later, I'll bring my umbrella. | |
| Feb 3, 2012 at 19:19 | comment | added | Gert Arnold | Good points. Is it a coincidence that your examples all start with the condition? | |
| Feb 3, 2012 at 16:31 | history | answered | Mustafa | CC BY-SA 3.0 |