Past Conditional Statements

Now in this post we would learn about ‘past conditional statements’.  The auxiliaries like would, should, could or might is used in one part of the complex sentence and any past or continuous form of verb including auxiliary cum verb or past perfect form, in the other. But, in the meanwhile the tense of the statement remains in present time. Let us study the following examples from the view of the period of the time of the statement:

1. Would you help my daughter in her studies? (simple present tense)
2. I would help him if he asked me.
3. I couldn’t help her if she did not ask for it.
Note: Under the present conditional statements there is no difference between the above three statements. In this case the auxiliaries used are different. Another way of determining this types of sentences are if we use a past equivalent form of auxiliary in one part of the sentence, we must use a past form of verb in the other. Yet, the entire sentence will belong to “present time”. If the verb used in one part is of present form, the auxiliary used in the other part must also belongs to the present tense. We should remember one thing that ‘will’ and ‘shall’ are also simple present tense auxiliaries used for giving orders or commands in present time.

We are learning medical transcription lessons in this blog. You can navigate to the First Lesson from here.

Now let us see the following examples:
1. Could I talk to you if I contact through your mobile number?
2. The students should not be arguing unnecessarily if they wanted the exam.
3. Nancy could withdraw her name from the dance competition if it was necessary.
4. The teacher might oblige you if you were persistent.
5. The bright students should help the weak students if the latter were asking for it, shouldn’t they?
6. Louis could not come first in the race even if she put in extra energy, might she?
7. If she felt sick, she should not attend the class.
8. The doctor would attend to the patient if he had felt very uneasy.

In the next post we would learn about ‘past perfect conditional statements’.

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