- 1 A red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long.
- 2 If I'm Mabel, I'll stay down here!
- 3 Won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting!
Sentences 1–3 are examples of the conditional construction. Each sentence consists of a main clause and a subordinate clause headed by the subordinating conjunction if. The if-clause is called the protasis (P); the main clause is called the apodosis (Q).
Meaning
The sentence if P, then Q means that Q must be true when P is true. (A red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long.) It usually implies that P causes Q, or is somehow relevant to Q. (Holding the poker will cause the burning.) It often implies that Q is false when P is false. (You won't get burnt if you don't hold the poker.)
Open and remote conditions
Sentences 1–3 are open conditions. The open condition if P, then Q implies that the speaker doesn't know whether P is true. (You might pick up the poker, you might not.)
Sentences 4–6 are remote conditions.
- 4 If only her petals curled up a little more, she'd be all right.
- 5 I think I could, if I only knew how to begin.
- 6 Would you like cats if you were me?
The remote condition if P, then Q implies that P is probably false. (Her petals probably won't curl up any more). In past and present time, P is almost always false. (She doesn't know how to begin; you are not me.)
Tense
In the protasis of an open condition, the main verb cannot usually be headed by the auxiliary verb will: future time is normally indicated by the present tense. (Sentences 1–3.)
In the protasis of a remote condition, the main verb must be past tense. In its apodosis, the main verb must be headed by one of these auxiliary verbs: would, could, might, should. (Sentences 4–6.)
Exercises
Exercise 1
Write definitions of these terms:
Exercise 2
Write short sentences illustrating these constructions:
- an open condition referring to the present
- an open condition referring to the past
- an open condition referring to the future
- an open condition whose protasis refers to the past and whose apodosis refers to the present
- an open condition whose protasis refers to the present and whose apodosis refers to the future
- a remote condition referring to the present
- a remote condition referring to the past
- a remote condition referring to the future
- a remote condition whose protasis refers to the past and whose apodosis refers to the present
- a remote condition whose protasis refers to the present and whose apodosis refers to the future