Question

I’m from Turkey. I have learnt a lot from your lessons. Thanks ever so much for your help, I really appreciate it
Now, I have got a problem with if conditionals. Is there a mixed type conditional which type2 and type1 used together? Let me give an example;

If + Past Simple + Will / Can + Verb1

If I were you, I will go home now.

I saw this on youtube, and the teacher said that we used will instead of would because of the “now”. I really want to learn if this statement is true or not. If you can reply to my question, I would really appreciate it.

Here’s the link:

She’s also Turkish. All the commentators, except one, said that she was wrong. So, I looked up for her on the internet, and Iearned that she’s an English teacher who educated in England.

Is it possible to use would with now?

If I were you, I would go home now.

Answer

I added my own comment. it just goes to show that you can’t trust the Internet

Your example with ‘would’ is fine. I don’t understand why you would think there is a problem.

And finally, here’s an example of a real type2 plus type 1 to show you that they do genuinely exist.

If he really posted the book before 5 yesterday, we’ll probably get it today.

Pearson

New Question

Dear Mr. Brown,

Unreal conditionals in the present time, which is also called type2 conditional, show situations that are unreal, untrue, and impossible or unlikely. We use past simple in the “if” clause, and would / could / might + base verb in the result clause. We often give advice using ” If I were you, ….”

For example;
” If I were you, I wouldn’t cut my hair. It looks good the way it is. Why change it? ”

The problem is, why she used “will”  instead of “would”?
Is she correct or not? ( According to your example, can we say she is correct?)
If she is correct, why are not any explanations exist in the grammar books?
Yours Faithfully,

New Answer

She is correct in that the ‘three conditionals’ only represent a part of the conditionals that native speakers say.

We identify them because they are the three most common patterns.

However, other patterns are possible but are harder to teach because they occur infrequently. I gave you an example of how it is possible to have a sentence with if+past simple   followed by ‘will’.  However, you cannot generalise from the example I gave you. Otherwise you end up with the nonsense English that the teacher in the video produced.

I’ve already told you she was wrong and I’ve written that on the website. I’m not sure why you are asking me again if she is ‘correct’. No she isn’t.

Explanations about this do exist in advanced grammar books. However, it isn’t really helpful for non-native students of English to spend too much time in this area because a) the three main pattern types are hard enough to master    b) the other types appear so rarely .

Hope that helps.

Pearson

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