Hi,
Could anyone Please check these sentences?
a) If I were sick, I would have taken this medicine.
b) If I were not sick,wouldn’t I have taken this medicine?
Please help me understand this type of grammar structure.
Hi Crazy,
Here are my suggestions:
a) If I were sick, I would take this medicine. (conditional II)
b) If were not sick, why would I take this medicine? (conditional II)
For more information on the conditionals, please read on condition.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Break for a smoke[YSaerTTEW443543]
Hi Torsten,
Thanks a lot for replying.
My first confusion is with "If I were sick”. Dose it mean “If I get sick”, “If I got sick” or “If I will get sick”?
I kindly request you to please help me understand this.
Hi Crazy
Try looking at it this way:
“i I were sick[/i]” is basically just the theoretical/unreal version of “(It is true that) I am sick”.
Saying “I am sick” refers to the real state of my health in the present. It is a real condition now.
Saying “If I were sick” does not refer to the real state of my health at present. Instead, it refers to a condition that is theoretical/unreal/not true at the moment.
.
3 possible meanings:
I’m not sick at this moment and that’s why I’m not taking this medicine.
I’m not sick at this moment, but if I were/was, I would take this medicine (now).
If I were/was sick at any time in the future, I would take this medicine (then).
- If I were not sick, wouldn’t I have taken this medicine?
This doesn’t quite make sense; but you might say:
- If I weren’t sick, would I have taken this medicine?
A schoolboy simulating sickness might say such a thing, indignantly: he took the medicine to prove he was sick.
(In BrE, I would think “If I wasn’t” more usual than “If I weren’t”, in this kind of context.)
MrP
Or a closet drug addict on being accused of abuse or any other person who is “abusing” drugs/medicines.