Conditionals

Question

«He had moved from hideout to hideout among people who, if they recognized him, would never give him up, because it was a place where there were pictures of him in gilded frames on the walls, where prayers were said for him to have a long life and many children, and where (he also knew) those who did not pray for him feared him.»
Could you explain the use of conditional. I know that second conditional refers to the present situation, ( if I had money I would buy a car)but the narrative is about the past , shouldn't it have been the third?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Interesting example. Native speakers just read through those kinds of constructions without noticing any change of viewpoint.

Vladv(since) the narrative is about the past, shouldn't it have been the third?

Strictly speaking it should have been a third conditional, but as stated above, readers are not usually bothered by a minor slip of the pen like this, if that's what it was.

The third conditional implies that the event in the if-clause did not take place, and it's not clear that it is really the intention of the text to convey this. If they had recognized him implies They did not recognize him. But that doesn't apply in the given text because it's not a single case of recognition. It's more like In any situation where they might recognize him, they would not give him up.

I know this is not a very strong justification for the author's choice, but it should probably be taken into consideration before consigning him to grammar jail.

CJ

Conditionals

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