Imagined situations
Are we talking about a fact or something we imagine?
Znaczenie
We can talk about a situation as something we imagine rather than as a fact. This lets us explore possibilities, picture a different past, or express a wish. Languages may use special verb forms, helper words, or context; some have no separate form for imagined situations. Condition makes one situation depend on another, while Imagined situations concerns whether we present something as imagined, with or without a condition.
Jak to rozpoznać
Look for forms, words, or context that present a situation as imagined, wished for, or different from what actually happened.
W języku nauki
English often uses past forms to describe an imagined present or future, not just past time. Would, could, or might can show the imagined result of a condition. To imagine a different past, English commonly uses if with had and the past participle, the verb's third form such as gone, and would have with that form for the result.
If I lived closer, I would walk to work.
Lived is a past form, but it describes an imagined present situation.
If we had left earlier, we would have caught the bus.
The speaker imagines a different past: they did not leave early enough to catch the bus.
I wish I had a bigger kitchen.
Had describes a wish about the present, not something the speaker had in the past.
Learners whose language uses a conditional verb form in both parts may put would in an ordinary imagined if-condition. Learners whose language does not use past forms for imagined present situations may read every past form as referring to past time.