English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level
ESL/EFL Test #236 [color=blue]“Various Conjunctions (4)”, question 3
Tom is always late, … I wouldn’t worry if you can’t get there on time.
(a) so
(b) if
(c) or
(d) nor
English Grammar Tests, Elementary Level
ESL/EFL Test #236 [color=blue]“Various Conjunctions (4)”, answer 3
Tom is always late, so I wouldn’t worry if you can’t get there on time.
Correct answer: (a) so
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Why “I wouldn’t” and not “won’t”
The speaker is not the person who would be doing the worrying.
Nice answer, BN!
Dear BN and MM, is this what you mean:
Tom is always late, so you won’t worry if you can’t get there on time.
Which is correct:
Tom is always late, so I won’t get my paper on time.
Tom is always late, so I wouldn’t get your paper on time.
I’m confused…please help and many thanks.
The speaker is telling the person not to worry about getting there on time to meet Tom, because it is likely that Tom will be late himself.
If the speaker were the worried person going to meet Tom, he would say:
Tom is always late, so I won’t worry about getting there on time.
Because he is advising someone else, he needs to use ‘shouldn’t’ or ‘wouldn’t’.
He uses ‘I’ instead of ‘you’, because he is indicating how he would feel if he were in the position of the person who is going to meet Tom.
Your two final sentences are context dependent. Either could be correct.
The original question is like:
Tom is always late so don’t worry about getting there on time. (I would not worry if I were going to meet him)
Dear BN, I hope you’d bear with me… so can I take that it is about advising someone else I need to use “wouldn’t” and “shouldn’t”?