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tenses

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tkulkarn
 Post subject: tenses
 Post Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:07 pm 
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Students


Posts: 17
Recently I finished the chapter on the tenses.
I have a question on the following if...then construct.
If sara ate pizza tomorrow, she would become ill.

Does the above become equivalent to:
If sara were to eat pizza tomorrow, she would become ill.

Thank you.
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RonPurewal
 Post subject: Re: tenses
 Post Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:19 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 7146
tkulkarn wrote:
Recently I finished the chapter on the tenses.
I have a question on the following if...then construct.
If sara ate pizza tomorrow, she would become ill.

Does the above become equivalent to:
If sara were to eat pizza tomorrow, she would become ill.

Thank you.


the latter of these two constructions is definitely fine.

i'm not so sure about the former. to be sure, that construction is extremely widespread in spoken language; however, it might -- just might -- be incorrect in formal written language. i'm not quite sure; i would reserve a concrete judgment until seeing an official example that settles the issue one way or the other.

in any case, the hypothetical subjunctive (the tense in which your first example appears) is normally used to speak of present or past situations that are contrary to reality. in that sense, your first example doesn't fit the mold: since the future (i.e., tomorrow) hasn't happened yet, we don't know whether or not this is contrary to reality. as such, you would be better off using the present and/or future tense: if laura eats pizza tomorrow, she will become ill.
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