The Conditional Mood

Form: the Conditional Mood is an analytical form built up by means of the auxiliary verb should (for the 1^st person) of would (for all persons) and the Infinitive. The non-perfect Conditional Mood employs the indefinite or continuous Infinitive: should do, would be going; the perfect Conditional Mood is formed with the help of the perfect or perfect continuous Infinitive: should have done, would have been reading.

In Modern English for the first person should and w ould are both possible with no real difference in meaning:

I should (would) never have thought you read anything but the sporting news.

Meaning: The Conditional Mood, like Subjunctive II, represents an action as contradicting reality. The different between the two moods is in their form and in their usage.

Use: A. The Conditional Mood is used to denote unreal actions in simple sentences:

1. with an adverbial modifier of condition expressed by a but for - phrase:

He would not have come, but for me.

2. with implied condition:

I wouldn’t waste my time on rubbish in your place (condition is implied in the phase in your place = If I were in your place).

3. to sound polite, less straightforward. Here the Conditional Mood differs from the Indicative only stylistically:

I should very much object to you reading trashy novels (= I very much object).

B. The Conditional Mood is used in the principal clauses of complex sentences with the subordinate clauses of unreal condition or unreal concession (where Subjunctive II is used). The choice of actual forms depends on the time-reference of the actions:

1. If the unreal actions in both the principal and the subordinate clause relate to the present or future, the non-perfect forms of respectively the Conditional Mood and Subjunctive II are used:

I should never forgive myself if I profited by his generosity.

2. If both the actions contradicting reality relate to the past, the perfect Conditional is used in the principal clause and perfect Subjunctive II in the subordinate one:

I’d have gone this morning if I’d been able to get away.

3. The actions in the principal and subordinate clauses may have different time-reference. Sentences of this kind are said to have split condition (or mixed type). The unreal condition may refer to the past (past Subjunctive II) and the unreal consequence to the present (non-perfect Conditional):

How much better I should write now if in my youth I had had the advantage of sensible advice!

The unreal condition may refer to no particular time (non-perfect Subjunctive II) and the unreal consequence may refer to the past (perfect Conditional):

She wouldn’t have told me the story if she disliked me.

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