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Complex sentences with a subordinate clause of condition (conditional sentences)may be divided into two groups: sentences of real condition and sentences of unreal condition.
1 In conditional sentences forms expressing unreality are used in both the principal clause and in the subordinate clause (the if-clause), whereas in all the previously described types of sentences forms expressing unreality are found only in subordinate clauses.
In sentences of real condition we find the Indicative Mood. They usually refer to the future, so the Future tense is used in the principal clause and the present tense in the if-clause.
e.g. If you continue in this way you'll break your mother's heart.
You won't be believed if you tell the truth.
Sentences of real condition may also refer to the present or past, though not very often.
e.g. I always lose money if I bet.
In the evenings we played chess or strolled about if it was fine.
It should be noted that sentences of the latter kind express regularly occurring actions.
Clauses of condition are usually joined to the principal clause by means of the conjunction if and are therefore called if-clauses. There are other conjunctions which serve to introduce clauses of condition, but their use is not so common. They are: unless, in case, supposing (suppose) that, providing (provided) that, on condition that.
All these conjunctions may be used in sentences of both real and unreal condition.
In sentences of unreal condition we find forms expressing unreality: the form of the Past Indefinite or the Past Perfect is used in the if-clause, and the Conditional Mood (Present and Past) is used in the principal clause.
The action of the if-clause is represented by the speaker as contradicting reality; consequently the action of the principal clause, which depends on this unreal condition, cannot be realized either.
When a sentence of unreal condition refers to the present or future, the form of the Past Indefinite is used in the if-clause and the Present Conditional Mood in the principal clause.
e.g. How nice it would be for Mother if we had a car.
You ought to know your uncle by this time. He's just like a child. He'd be a pauper tomorrow if I didn't see to things.
If the hospital were not so overcrowded, he said, he would recommend that she should be taken there.
When a sentence of unreal condition refers to the past, we find the form of the Past Perfect in the if-clause and the Past Conditional Mood in the principal clause.
e.g. It would have been too wonderful if he had said that. But he didn't.
Of course, all this wouldn't have happened if the girl hadn't been so excited.
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