EfS Grammar VIII: If… Two very different types of sentences that can be made with "if": hypotheses, and causes-and-effects.

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Hypotheticals H 1 (future): "If the deal goes through, Dr Smith will step down." H 2 (present): "If a nuclear accident occurred [i.e. now], millions of people would die." H 3 (past): "If it had not rained, we would have gone out." Tense Rules T 1 : If present tense, will-future T 2 : If past simple, would + infinitive T 3 : If past perfect, would have + past participle

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Reported Speech "If the deal goes through, he will…" He said if the deal went through, he would…  Present hypothetical (H 2 /T 2 ) "If an accident occurred, it would…" He said if an accident had occurred, it would have…  Past hypothetical (H 3 /T 3 )

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Causals (present) "W. would be in office if he was white." = W. is not white. He is not electible. = He is not electible because he is not white. Rearrangement Rule R Any sentence of the form A because B (present) can be rearranged to form If not B (then) not A (C 1 ) with the tenses according to T 2 (past simple, would + infintive)

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Causals (past) "If the goods had been delivered, they would have been sold." The goods were not delivered. They were not sold. (Because…) R applies: A because B (past) ≡ If not B (then) not A (C 2 ) Tenses follow T 3

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Exercise Rules Hypothesis or Cause-and-Effect? If hypothesis  H 1 (T 1 ), H 2 (T 2 ), H 3 (T 3 ) If cause-and-effect  make a sentence with "because";  rearrange according to R;  check tenses  C 1 (T 2 ), C 2 (T 3 ).

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Ambiguous Interpretations "There would be a better balance if the pound joined the EMS." Hypothetical (H 1 ):  The pound could join the EMS and then… Causal (C 1 ):  The balance is not good because… "If we knew the trios better, we could understand the quartetts."

SuSe 2008© 2008, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar VIII: If, hypotheticals, causals Corpus These examples and more in full and in their original context:  Click on "Preliminary If-Corpus" (General Resources and Investigations for Technical English)