Unreal Future Perfect

Question

Suppose there is pizza. Everyone starts eating, except Peter, who wants to run some errands before eating. If I speak in real conditional mood:

"If you run errands first, when you come back, the pizza will have been eaten."

If I speak in UNREAL conditional mood, would this be right:
"If you ran errands first, when you came back, the pizza would have been eaten."

SkyEast · Accepted Answer

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Everlastinghope · Answer

See this link :

Terryxpress · Answer

If I speak in UNREAL conditional mood, would this be right:
"If you ran errands first, when you came back, the pizza would have been eaten."

No - because you are still stating a REAL outcome: 'the pizza would have been eaten'

If you were to run errands first, when you come back, all the pizza could have been eaten.
You are imagining one possibility: the pizza is all eaten.
But another possibility is that nobody felt like pizza and it is untouched.
Another possibility is that somebody specifically set aside some slices for you, but the rest has all been eaten.

SkyEast · Answer

TerryxpressIf you were to run errands first, when you come back, all the pizza could have been eaten.

Thank you for your reply, Terry!

But if the errand-running is unreal, then isn't the coming back equally unreal, and therefore should be in unreal conditional tense (past tense)?

"If you were to run errands first, when you CAME back, all the pizza ......."

BillJ · Answer

SkyEastSuppose there is pizza. Everyone starts eating, except Peter, who wants to run some errands before eating. If I speak in real conditional mood:"If you run errands first, when you come back, the pizza will have been eaten."If I speak in UNREAL conditional mood, would this be right:"If you ran errands first, when you came back, the pizza would have been eaten."

No, it would not."Would" is incorrect in 2.

1. "If you run errands first, when you come back, the pizza will have been eaten."
2. "If you ran errands first, when you came back, the pizza would have been eaten."

The crucial point is that past tense "would" in "would have been eaten" has a past time meaning, whereas present tense "will" in "will have been eaten" has a future time meaning - it's an event that may or may not happen at some time in the future.

In example 1. the conditional clause with present tense "run" and "come" is neutral as to whether the condition will be met. By contrast, 2. with past tense "ran" and "came", presents the fulfilment of the condition as a more remote possibilty.

The switch of verb form in the conditional part of the sentence makes no difference to the verb in the main part. It must still be "will have been eaten" to indicate an event that has not taken place, not one that is complete.

Note that you could use past tense "would" if you really were talking about past time:

"If you had run errands first, when you came back the pizza would have been eaten"

Here the verbs "had ran" and "came" genuinely refer to past time, so past tense "would" is fine.

BillJ

Dimsumexpress · Answer

BillJ"If you had ran errands first, when you came back the pizza would have been eaten"Here the verbs "had ran" and "came" genuinely refer to past time, so past tense "would" is fine.

I assume, "had ran" must be an oversight.

SkyEast · Answer

So,the unreal conditional version of the following real conditional:

"If Peter runs errands first, he will come back late."

is:
"If Peter ran errands first, he will come back late."

SkyEast · Answer

---,,,...--,..

So,the unreal conditional version of the following real conditional:

"If Peter runs errands first, he will come back late."

is:
"If Peter ran errands first, he will come back late."

---.,.,-,.,-,.,-,,-
---,.-,-.-,.-,.-,-,-,.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

"If Peter runs errands first, he will come back late." Present.
"If Peter ran errands first, he would come back late." Past.

SkyEast · Answer

Thank you for your reply, AlpheccaStars!

So, making a few changes:

If I speak in REAL conditional mood, would this be right:
"If you run errands first, when you come back, the pizza will have been eaten."
?

If I speak in UNREAL conditional mood, would this be right:
"If you ran errands first, when you came back, the pizza would have been eaten."
?

Unreal Future Perfect

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