I was inspired to ask this question (on ELL) because of something in a CNN article that didn't sound right to me.
Per capita, Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters in Syria of any Western European nation. Experts say nearly 500 men and women have left Belgium for Syria and Iraq s...
they can both be used to mean the same thing, and for that sense there's no reason to prefer one over the other (they're equivalent, interchangeable)
BUT... the first version could be used to mean something different (normally, with heavy stress on were). That's to say If you told me you were going to do X (even though as it turned out, you didn't) I'd be satisfied.
note that there's also If you had told me (something that might have happened in the past, but in fact didn't).
I advise you not to "overthink" these kind of conditional constructions. Most native speakers have no idea what first / second / third conditional means (that's just something ESL teachers are obsessed with), and native speakers are usually extremely flexible about the tense forms they use.
There you go with the "potential backshift" lol! I wouldn't normally even notice if you'd written I wasn't so pedantic about how i constructed my sentences before
a pedant (or a very careful reader) might argue that constructed there would more strongly imply that you construct things differently now. But to all intents and purposes they mean the same.
it's simple past if you studied, which implies it's "unknown" to the speaker whjether you did or not. Using past perfect if you had studied implies that in fact you didn't (it's an "irrealis" condition).
so If you did your homework you [will] know the answer - speaker doesn't know if you did it or not. If rephrased as If you did your homework you would know, that implies speaker is telling you to study now and in the future, so you will know the answers.
Okay, suppose i'm not home yet, and i don't want to use the present tense to express myself, and i want to use constructions that start with "Would it be okay.."
So, if i used, "Would it be okay, if i called you when i got home?"
would it be okay?
or Would it be okay, if i call you when i got home?
or would it be okay, if i called you when i get home?
things like that should probably be asked on the main site. there's absolutely no doubt that you need the preposition when asking At what point...?, but you'd need someone more familiar with formal syntax to explain why (I'm pretty sure it's not a matter of "established idiomatic preference").
your second and third are no good (inconsistent tenses)
and that question concerning the usage of at, i kinda knew we use at constructing sentences of that sort, i just wanted to know whether you could drop the AT.
Actually, I've just realized pedants aren't that bad. As well as suicide bombers, I'm pretty sure I dislike nazis at least as much as pedants, and possibly even more.
Suppose there's an empty seat you'd like to sit in, and there's someone sitting beside the empty seat. So, you walk up to them, and you ask them "Would it be okay if take/took this seat?"
._.
You're an American. ._.) Worry about Donald Trump. xD
I don't mean any offense though. ._.)
Although, i do have a pretty intense sense of humor. ._.)
"Will/Would it be okay if take/took this seat?" is beyond reproach with either the first of each pair or the second of each. Mixing would + take is open to criticism from pedants, but it's not uncommon in actual speech. The complete no-no is will + took.
@DamkerngT. Eeek! But most of my impatience with Americans stems from the fact that they don't object to voting in leaders who claim to have God on their side. Worse than that, I gather it's not even possible to win an election in the US if you admit to being sensible and secular.
@lekonchekon Starred that! (I think the US should pay us an annual retainer for us letting them use our language).
._.) You people pretty much set the standard for a language that could be used worldwide. You people also invaded the country i live in a long time ago, and didn't leave for about 200 years. xD
and i could just use simple past instead of either of those like, "If you turned off the tv, that'd be great.", it wouldn't be wrong this way either, right?
I have another question concerning how we leave out "While/ When" (when) constructing sentences like "I was watching the tv the other day (whilst) talking my mom on the phone"
If we leave out while in similar constructions, and in the constructions above, would that grammatically wrong?
I was inspired to ask this question (on ELL) because of something in a CNN article that didn't sound right to me.
Per capita, Belgium has the highest number of foreign fighters in Syria of any Western European nation. Experts say nearly 500 men and women have left Belgium for Syria and Iraq s...
