Mrthfx

Alternative to sending password over mail?

How can bays and straits be determined in a procedurally generated map?

What does "Puller Prush Person" mean?

What does it mean to describe someone as a butt steak?

Today is the Center

Can an x86 CPU running in real mode be considered to be basically an 8086 CPU?

How do I deal with an unproductive colleague in a small company?

Has there ever been an airliner design involving reducing generator load by installing solar panels?

Malformed Address '10.10.21.08/24', must be X.X.X.X/NN or

Which country benefited the most from UN Security Council vetoes?

RSA: Danger of using p to create q

Why can't I see bouncing of a switch on an oscilloscope?

Is it tax fraud for an individual to declare non-taxable revenue as taxable income? (US tax laws)

Maximum likelihood parameters deviate from posterior distributions

I'm flying to France today and my passport expires in less than 2 months

What does the "remote control" for a QF-4 look like?

tikz convert color string to hex value

What is the word for reserving something for yourself before others do?

How to determine what difficulty is right for the game?

If human space travel is limited by the G force vulnerability, is there a way to counter G forces?

Why does Kotter return in Welcome Back Kotter?

Theorems that impeded progress

What is a clear way to write a bar that has an extra beat?

What would happen to a modern skyscraper if it rains micro blackholes?

if condition in the past

What does the “would have been” express in this sentence?

.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty{ margin-bottom:0;
}

3

I want to ask someone that why he didn't tell me something in the past and I want to say the sentence as below:

if you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

as I know this is not based on if condition formats and maybe I should have say:

if you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday.

I am curious to know which sentence is correct if any of them is correct.

conditionals

share|improve this question

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

migrated from english.stackexchange.com 5 hours ago

This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?
  
  – Smock
  12 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  thx @Smock but based on third if condition format, if I am using past verb in the if part I should use "would" in the second part , please correct me if I wrong
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm struggling to come up with something in that particular format that applies for the situation you describe above. Usually, there's an If+outcome, not an IF+question
  
  – Smock
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Smock thx dude, another question raise here and it is why "If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me then" is not incorrect based on conditional formulas. I know that it sounds natural but how we can explain this sentence is correct grammatically
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  It's not really a conditional statement as there is no statement, only a question. Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. 'If you knew yesterday, you would have told me'.
  
  – Smock
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 2 more comments

3

I want to ask someone that why he didn't tell me something in the past and I want to say the sentence as below:

if you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

as I know this is not based on if condition formats and maybe I should have say:

if you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday.

I am curious to know which sentence is correct if any of them is correct.

conditionals

share|improve this question

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

migrated from english.stackexchange.com 5 hours ago

This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.

• 
  
  
  

  
  2
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?
  
  – Smock
  12 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  thx @Smock but based on third if condition format, if I am using past verb in the if part I should use "would" in the second part , please correct me if I wrong
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I'm struggling to come up with something in that particular format that applies for the situation you describe above. Usually, there's an If+outcome, not an IF+question
  
  – Smock
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @Smock thx dude, another question raise here and it is why "If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me then" is not incorrect based on conditional formulas. I know that it sounds natural but how we can explain this sentence is correct grammatically
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  It's not really a conditional statement as there is no statement, only a question. Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. 'If you knew yesterday, you would have told me'.
  
  – Smock
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

 | 
show 2 more comments

I want to ask someone that why he didn't tell me something in the past and I want to say the sentence as below:

if you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

as I know this is not based on if condition formats and maybe I should have say:

if you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday.

I am curious to know which sentence is correct if any of them is correct.

conditionals

share|improve this question

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

share|improve this question

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

share|improve this question

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

asked 12 hours ago

joe gatesjoe gates

182

2 Answers
2

active

oldest

votes

2

Past verbs are often used for hypothetical conditions (what I think your teachers call "second conditional", but I've never heard that expression outside ESL teaching, so I'm not certain, and most English speakers won't know what you're talking about if you say it).

But this is not a hypothetical conditional, but a real conditional (what I think is called "first conditional") that happens to be in the past.

The first form you give

If you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

is perfectly normal and grammatical.

The second form

If you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?

is also grammatical, but has a slightly different meaning. The modal verb "would" has several other meanings apart from its use as a pseudo-tense. Here it either means "why were you not willing to tell me yesterday?"; or else as an epistemic modal, meaning something like "Why could it possibly be the case that you didn't tell me yesterday?"

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I think you need to address the flipped word order of "you didn't" and "you wouldn't"
  
  – THiebert
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  6
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be clear neither "why you didn't tell me yesterday?" nor "why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?" are correct English.
  
  – DJClayworth
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be more clear, "you didn't" and "you wouldn't" are not grammatical in this context, they should be "didn't you" and "wouldn't you".
  
  – Barmar
  7 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  True. I missed that point.
  
  – Colin Fine
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

This seems most natural to me:

If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?

I'm trying to come up with a sentence using 'wouldn't' but they all feel terribly clumsy. These are about the best I can do:

If you knew yesterday, why would you not have told me?

or

If you knew yesterday, why wouldn't you have told me?

I suppose if you had asked someone about something the day before, but they said they didn't know, but then revealed that they did know, you could use this:

If you already knew, why wouldn't you tell me yesterday? (when I asked)

but it's still a bit clumsy, and the 'didn't' form still sounds better to my ear

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question?
Are you saying you think they are lying about knowing yesterday?

You could say this in the third conditional:

If you knew yesterday, you would have told me [already/yesterday]

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am getting your point but my problem is that based on conditional formula if I am using the past verb in the if part, I have to use "would" in the second part but this is against that rule (third conditional formula)
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @joegates This is all contingent on how many conditionals you think actually exist: most EFL/ESL teachers would have it as only 3, but there are also mixed forms. Also...you did not invert the subject and verb in the question, making both sentences sound unnatural.
  
  – Cascabel
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Your Answer

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "481"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});

draft saved

draft discarded

Sign up or log in

StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});

Sign up using Google

Sign up using Facebook

Sign up using Email and Password

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fell.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f204093%2fif-condition-in-the-past%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest

Name

Email

Required, but never shown

2

Past verbs are often used for hypothetical conditions (what I think your teachers call "second conditional", but I've never heard that expression outside ESL teaching, so I'm not certain, and most English speakers won't know what you're talking about if you say it).

But this is not a hypothetical conditional, but a real conditional (what I think is called "first conditional") that happens to be in the past.

The first form you give

If you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

is perfectly normal and grammatical.

The second form

If you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?

is also grammatical, but has a slightly different meaning. The modal verb "would" has several other meanings apart from its use as a pseudo-tense. Here it either means "why were you not willing to tell me yesterday?"; or else as an epistemic modal, meaning something like "Why could it possibly be the case that you didn't tell me yesterday?"

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I think you need to address the flipped word order of "you didn't" and "you wouldn't"
  
  – THiebert
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  6
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be clear neither "why you didn't tell me yesterday?" nor "why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?" are correct English.
  
  – DJClayworth
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be more clear, "you didn't" and "you wouldn't" are not grammatical in this context, they should be "didn't you" and "wouldn't you".
  
  – Barmar
  7 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  True. I missed that point.
  
  – Colin Fine
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

Past verbs are often used for hypothetical conditions (what I think your teachers call "second conditional", but I've never heard that expression outside ESL teaching, so I'm not certain, and most English speakers won't know what you're talking about if you say it).

But this is not a hypothetical conditional, but a real conditional (what I think is called "first conditional") that happens to be in the past.

The first form you give

If you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

is perfectly normal and grammatical.

The second form

If you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?

is also grammatical, but has a slightly different meaning. The modal verb "would" has several other meanings apart from its use as a pseudo-tense. Here it either means "why were you not willing to tell me yesterday?"; or else as an epistemic modal, meaning something like "Why could it possibly be the case that you didn't tell me yesterday?"

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

• 
  
  
  

  
  5
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I think you need to address the flipped word order of "you didn't" and "you wouldn't"
  
  – THiebert
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  6
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be clear neither "why you didn't tell me yesterday?" nor "why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?" are correct English.
  
  – DJClayworth
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  1
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  To be more clear, "you didn't" and "you wouldn't" are not grammatical in this context, they should be "didn't you" and "wouldn't you".
  
  – Barmar
  7 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  True. I missed that point.
  
  – Colin Fine
  5 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

Past verbs are often used for hypothetical conditions (what I think your teachers call "second conditional", but I've never heard that expression outside ESL teaching, so I'm not certain, and most English speakers won't know what you're talking about if you say it).

But this is not a hypothetical conditional, but a real conditional (what I think is called "first conditional") that happens to be in the past.

The first form you give

If you knew that yesterday why you didn't tell me yesterday?

is perfectly normal and grammatical.

The second form

If you knew that yesterday why you wouldn't tell me yesterday?

is also grammatical, but has a slightly different meaning. The modal verb "would" has several other meanings apart from its use as a pseudo-tense. Here it either means "why were you not willing to tell me yesterday?"; or else as an epistemic modal, meaning something like "Why could it possibly be the case that you didn't tell me yesterday?"

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

answered 11 hours ago

Colin FineColin Fine

31.6k24560

2

This seems most natural to me:

If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?

I'm trying to come up with a sentence using 'wouldn't' but they all feel terribly clumsy. These are about the best I can do:

If you knew yesterday, why would you not have told me?

or

If you knew yesterday, why wouldn't you have told me?

I suppose if you had asked someone about something the day before, but they said they didn't know, but then revealed that they did know, you could use this:

If you already knew, why wouldn't you tell me yesterday? (when I asked)

but it's still a bit clumsy, and the 'didn't' form still sounds better to my ear

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question?
Are you saying you think they are lying about knowing yesterday?

You could say this in the third conditional:

If you knew yesterday, you would have told me [already/yesterday]

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am getting your point but my problem is that based on conditional formula if I am using the past verb in the if part, I have to use "would" in the second part but this is against that rule (third conditional formula)
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @joegates This is all contingent on how many conditionals you think actually exist: most EFL/ESL teachers would have it as only 3, but there are also mixed forms. Also...you did not invert the subject and verb in the question, making both sentences sound unnatural.
  
  – Cascabel
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

2

This seems most natural to me:

If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?

I'm trying to come up with a sentence using 'wouldn't' but they all feel terribly clumsy. These are about the best I can do:

If you knew yesterday, why would you not have told me?

or

If you knew yesterday, why wouldn't you have told me?

I suppose if you had asked someone about something the day before, but they said they didn't know, but then revealed that they did know, you could use this:

If you already knew, why wouldn't you tell me yesterday? (when I asked)

but it's still a bit clumsy, and the 'didn't' form still sounds better to my ear

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question?
Are you saying you think they are lying about knowing yesterday?

You could say this in the third conditional:

If you knew yesterday, you would have told me [already/yesterday]

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I am getting your point but my problem is that based on conditional formula if I am using the past verb in the if part, I have to use "would" in the second part but this is against that rule (third conditional formula)
  
  – joe gates
  11 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  


• 
  
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  @joegates This is all contingent on how many conditionals you think actually exist: most EFL/ESL teachers would have it as only 3, but there are also mixed forms. Also...you did not invert the subject and verb in the question, making both sentences sound unnatural.
  
  – Cascabel
  9 hours ago
  

  
  
  
  

add a comment | 

This seems most natural to me:

If you knew that yesterday why didn't you tell me [then/at the time/yesterday]?

I'm trying to come up with a sentence using 'wouldn't' but they all feel terribly clumsy. These are about the best I can do:

If you knew yesterday, why would you not have told me?

or

If you knew yesterday, why wouldn't you have told me?

I suppose if you had asked someone about something the day before, but they said they didn't know, but then revealed that they did know, you could use this:

If you already knew, why wouldn't you tell me yesterday? (when I asked)

but it's still a bit clumsy, and the 'didn't' form still sounds better to my ear

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question?
Are you saying you think they are lying about knowing yesterday?

You could say this in the third conditional:

If you knew yesterday, you would have told me [already/yesterday]

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

share|improve this answer

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816

answered 11 hours ago

SmockSmock

3816