Conditional sentences are
natural language
In neuropsychology, linguistics, and philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages ...
sentences that express that one thing is
contingent
Contingency or Contingent may refer to:
* Contingency (philosophy), in philosophy and logic
* Contingency plan, in planning
* Contingency table, in statistics
* Contingency theory, in organizational theory
* Contingency theory (biology) in evoluti ...
on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the
main clause
An independent clause (or main clause) is a clause that can stand by itself as a ''simple sentence''. An independent clause contains a subject and a predicate and makes sense by itself.
Independent clauses can be joined by using a semicolon or ...
of the sentence is ''conditional'' on the
dependent clause
A subordinate clause, dependent clause, subclause, or embedded clause is a clause that is embedded within a complex sentence. For instance, in the English sentence "I know that Bette is a dolphin", the clause "that Bette is a dolphin" occurs as t ...
. A full conditional thus contains two
clauses: a dependent clause called the ''antecedent'' (or ''protasis'' or ''if-clause''), which expresses the condition, and a main clause called the ''consequent'' (or ''apodosis'' or ''then-clause'') expressing the result.
Languages use a variety of grammatical forms and constructions in conditional sentences. The forms of
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s used in the antecedent and consequent are often subject to particular rules as regards their
tense,
aspect
Aspect or Aspects may refer to:
Entertainment
* ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art
* Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company
* Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England
* ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, and
mood. Many languages have a specialized type of verb form called the
conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
– broadly equivalent in meaning to the English "would (do something)" – for use in some types of conditional sentences.
Types of conditional sentence
There are various ways of classifying conditional sentences. Many of these categories are visible cross-linguistically.
Implicative and predictive
A conditional sentence expressing an ''implication'' (also called a ''factual'' conditional sentence) essentially states that if one fact holds, then so does another. (If the sentence is not a
declarative sentence
In linguistics and grammar, a sentence is a linguistic expression, such as the English example "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." In traditional grammar, it is typically defined as a string of words that expresses a complete thought, ...
, then the consequence may be expressed as an order or a
question
A question is an utterance which serves as a request for information. Questions are sometimes distinguished from interrogatives, which are the grammar, grammatical forms typically used to express them. Rhetorical questions, for instance, are inte ...
rather than a statement.) The facts are usually stated in whatever
grammatical tense
In grammar, tense is a grammatical category, category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their grammatical conjugation, conjugation patterns.
The main tenses foun ...
is appropriate to them; there are not normally special tense or
mood patterns for this type of conditional sentence. Such sentences may be used to express a certainty, a universal statement, a law of science, etc. (in these cases ''if'' may often be replaced by ''when''):
::If you heat water to 100 degrees (°C) , it boils.
::If the sea is stormy, the waves are high.
They can also be used for logical deductions about particular circumstances (which can be in various mixtures of past, present, and future):
::If it's raining here now, then it was raining on the West Coast this morning.
::If it's raining now, then your laundry is getting wet.
::If it's raining now, there will be mushrooms to be picked next week.
::If he locked the door, then Kitty is trapped inside.
A ''predictive'' conditional sentence concerns a situation dependent on a hypothetical (but entirely possible) future event. The consequence is normally also a statement about the future, although it may also be a consequent statement about present or past time (or a question or order).
::If I become President, I'll lower taxes.
::If it rains this afternoon, everybody will stay home.
::If it rains this afternoon, then yesterday's weather forecast was wrong.
::If it rains this afternoon, your garden party is doomed.
::What will you do if he invites you?
::If you see them, shoot!
Indicative and counterfactual
One of the most discussed distinctions among conditionals is that between ''indicative'' and ''counterfactual'' conditionals, exemplified by the following
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
examples:
* Indicative conditional: If Sally ''owns'' a donkey, then she ''beats'' it.
* Simple past counterfactual: If Sally ''owned'' a donkey, she ''would beat'' it.
These conditionals differ in both form and meaning. The indicative conditional uses the present tense forms "owns" and "beats" and therefore conveys that the speaker is agnostic about whether Sally in fact owns a donkey. The counterfactual example uses the
fake tense
Counterfactual conditionals (also ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be here." Counterfactual ...
form "owned" in the "if" clause and the past-inflected
modal "would" in the "then" clause. As a result, it conveys that Sally does not in fact own a donkey. Similar contrasts are common crosslinguistically, though the specific
morphological marking varies from language to language.
Linguists and
philosophers of language
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
sometimes avoid the term ''counterfactuals'' because not all examples express counterfactual meanings. For instance, the "Anderson Case" has the characteristic grammatical form of a counterfactual conditional, but is in fact used as part of an argument for the truth of its antecedent.
::Anderson Case: If Jones had taken arsenic, he would have shown just exactly those symptoms which he does in fact show.
The term ''subjunctive conditional'' has been used as a replacement, though it is also acknowledged as a misnomer. Many languages do not have a
subjunctive (e.g.,
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
and
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
), and many that do have it don’t use it for this sort of conditional (e.g.,
French,
Swahili, all
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily ...
that have a subjunctive). Moreover, languages that do use the subjunctive for such conditionals only do so if they have a specific past subjunctive form. The term ''X-Marked'' has been used as a replacement, with indicative conditionals renamed as ''O-Marked'' conditionals.
Speech act conditionals
''Biscuit conditionals'' (also known as ''relevance'' or ''speech act'' conditionals) are conditionals where the truth of the consequent does not depend on the truth of the antecedent.
* There are biscuits on the table if you want some.
* If you need anything, my name is Joshua.
* If I may be honest, you're not looking good
In ''Metalinguistic conditionals'', the antecedent qualifies the usage of some term. For instance, in the following example, the speaker has unconditionally asserted that they saw the relevant person, whether or not that person should really be called their ex-husband.
* I saw my ex-husband, if that's the right word for him.
Non-declarative conditionals
In ''conditional questions'', the antecedent qualifies a question asked in the consequent.
* If Mary comes to the party, will Katherine come too?
* If Angel forgets her guitar, what will we do?
In ''conditional imperatives'', the antecedent qualifies a command given in the consequent.
[ ]
*If you are at an intersection, turn right!
Crosslinguistic variation
Languages have different rules concerning the
grammatical
In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...
structure of conditional sentences. These may concern the
syntactic
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
structure of the antecedent and consequent clauses, as well as the forms of verbs used in them (particularly their
tense and
mood). Rules for English and certain other languages are described below; more information can be found in the articles on the grammars of individual languages. (Some languages are also described in the article on the
conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
.)
Latin
Conditional sentences in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
are traditionally classified into three categories, based on grammatical structure.
*simple conditions (factual or logical implications)
**present tense
f ''present indicative'' then ''indicative''::: "if you are well, I am glad"
:*past tense
f ''perfect indicative'' then ''indicative''::: "if I did wrong, I did so unwittingly"
:*2nd person generalisations
f ''present or perfect subjunctive'' then ''indicative''
F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...
::: "memory gets weaker, if you don't exercise it"
*future conditions
**"future more vivid"
f ''future or future perfect indicative'' then ''future indicative''::: "if you bring (literally "will have brought") these things, you will dine well"
:*"future less vivid"
f ''present or perfect subjunctive'' then ''present subjunctive''::: "if I were to deny it, I would be lying"
*counterfactual conditions
**"present contrary-to-fact"
f ''imperfect subjunctive'' then ''imperfect subjunctive''::: "I would write more, if you were in Rome"
:*"past contrary-to-fact"
f ''pluperfect subjunctive'' then ''pluperfect subjunctive''::: "if I had been in Rome, I would have seen you"
French
In
French, the conjunction corresponding to "if" is ''si''. The use of tenses is quite similar to English:
*In implicative conditional sentences, the present tense (or other appropriate tense, mood, etc.) is used in both clauses.
*In predictive conditional sentences, the future tense or imperative generally appears in the main clause, but the condition clause is formed with the present tense (as in English). This contrasts with dependent clauses introduced by certain other conjunctions, such as ''quand'' ("when"), where French uses the future (while English has the present).
*In counterfactual conditional sentences, the
imperfect
The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was walking" or "used to ...
is used to express the condition (where English similarly uses the past tense). The main clause contains the
conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
(e.g. ''j'arriverais'', "I would arrive").
*In counterfactual conditional sentences with a past time frame, the condition is expressed using the
pluperfect
The pluperfect (shortening of plusquamperfect), usually called past perfect in English, is a type of verb form, generally treated as a grammatical tense in certain languages, relating to an action that occurred prior to an aforementioned time i ...
e.g. (''s'il avait attendu'', "if he had waited"), and the consequence with the
conditional perfect The conditional perfect is a grammatical construction that combines the conditional mood with perfect aspect. A typical example is the English ''would have written''.Gail Stein, ''Webster's New World Spanish Grammar Handbook'', John Wiley & Sons, 20 ...
(e.g. ''je l'aurais vu'', "I would have seen him"). Again these verb forms parallel those used in English.
As in English, certain mixtures and variations of these patterns are possible. See also
French verbs
French verbs are a part of speech in French grammar. Each verb lexeme has a collection of finite and non-finite forms in its conjugation scheme.
Finite forms depend on grammatical tense and person/number. There are eight simple tense–aspectâ ...
.
Italian
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
uses the following patterns (the equivalent of "if" is ''se''):
*Present tense (or other as appropriate) in both parts of an implicative conditional.
*Future tense in both parts of a predictive conditional sentence (the future is not replaced with the present in condition clauses as in English or French).
*In a counterfactual conditional, the imperfect
subjunctive is used for the condition, and the
conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
for the main clause. A more informal equivalent is to use the imperfect indicative in both parts.
*In a counterfactual conditional with past time frame, the pluperfect subjunctive is used for the condition, and the past conditional (conditional perfect) for the main clause.
See also
Italian verbs
Italian verbs have a high degree of inflection, the majority of which follows one of three common patterns of conjugation. Italian conjugation is affected by mood, person, tense, number, aspect and occasionally gender.
The three classes of v ...
.
Slavic languages
In
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic, spoken during the Ear ...
, such as
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, clauses in conditional sentences generally appear in their natural tense (future tense for future reference, etc.) However, for counterfactuals, a conditional/subjunctive marker such as the Russian бы ''by'' generally appears in both condition and consequent clauses, and this normally accompanies the past tense form of the verb.
See
Russian grammar,
Bulgarian grammar, etc. for more detail.
Logic
While the
material conditional
The material conditional (also known as material implication) is an operation commonly used in logic. When the conditional symbol \rightarrow is interpreted as material implication, a formula P \rightarrow Q is true unless P is true and Q i ...
operator used in
classical logic is sometimes read aloud in the form of a conditional sentence, the intuitive interpretation of conditional statements in natural language does not always correspond to it. Thus,
philosophical logicians and
formal semanticists have developed a wide variety of
conditional logics which better match actual conditional language and conditional reasoning. These include the
strict conditional In logic, a strict conditional (symbol: \Box, or ⥽) is a conditional governed by a modal operator, that is, a logical connective of modal logic. It is logically equivalent to the material conditional of classical logic, combined with the necess ...
, the
variably strict conditional
Counterfactual conditionals (also ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be here." Counterfactual ...
, among others.
See also
*
Anankastic conditional
*
Conditional mood The conditional mood ( abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood used in conditional sentences to express a proposition whose validity is dependent on some condition, possibly counterfactual.
It may refer to a distinct verb form that expresses the condit ...
*
Modality
Modality may refer to:
Humanities
* Modality (theology), the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations
* Modality (music), in music, the subject concerning certain diatonic scales
* Modaliti ...
*
Propositional attitude
References
External links
Latin ConditionalsConditional Sentences in English Grammar
{{Formal semantics
Sentences by type
Conditionals in linguistics
Grammar
Semantics
Linguistic modality
Linguistics
Formal semantics (natural language)