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In conditional sentences, the antecedent or “if-clauses” must be kept distinct from the consequent clause

The English conditional sentences are divided into two major classes and they include factual/predictive and hypothetical depending on the form of verb in the condition commonly referred to as protasis. Factual and counterfactual in this case are broadly used to correspond to linguistic modalities which are known as realis and irrealis.

There is some confusion that does exist as experienced between the subjective and the conditional verb of the “If” clause as long lived as it has been. To make matters worse, there has been an endless disagreement about when the “if” is required or not.

It is important to understand the meaning of the subjective mood so as to understand how we can be able to make use of it. In most of the sentences you will also realize the presence of subjunctive mood. The subjunctive clause is usually used after the “if” clause but not every time.

There is a point at which we should observe how tricky things may go and here is where we have the “condition” that the verb is referenced to be the wished or even desired or contrarily to be used as a fact.

To work out this problem we could have the following examples as reliable, “If Joseph were a king (though he is not) he would have you arrested.”

John wishes he would be somewhere warm. (Though he is not)

In this case suppose we did not have any king of hoping or even wishing and there is a possibility that the condition is likely to be met? Then in this case it is advisable to make use of the conditional clauses for situations that do not exist but there is a likelihood of their existence.

From the sentences that we have above, it is clear that the writer has some confusion on the subjunctive mood as well as the conditional mood. Writers in this case are advised to make a reservation of the subjunctive verb which is “to be”. These ones will be used to describe things that do not or are probably not existent.

Much as we want to use the conditional sentences, it is important to ensure that we avoid ambiguity for this may mean that we are not being much communicative. We should also understand that all the sentence constructions that make use of the conditional clause express a condition that is automatically false or even presented as unlikely. You will find that the result clause will contain conditional verbs that consist of might, could, should or even would.

Some varieties of English are regularly believed to make the use of “would” and it is used in counterfactual ways in a short term as (I)’d. In British English, there are exceptions in which these short forms can be used. They are also termed as counterfactual conditions. “I’d” for example can be used as a modal form of “would”. This however, depends on the intended meaning or its use in a sentence.