Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Chan-Seung Lee]

[buddhaheart]

1.Please make sure that they know what happened here. Okay.
2.Please make sure that they will know what happened here. No.
3.I would appreciate it if you're quiet for the show. Okay if the �if� clause is in the past This is preferred.
4.I would appreciate it if you would be quiet for the show. Not preferred.

The use of future tense in the subordinate clause (SC) in 2. is unnecessary. As the main clause (MC) implies futurity, the tense of the SC is simplified to a simple present (SPre) instead of the �will� + infinitive to refer to the future. The principle of tense simplification in the SC is that verb in SC should be simpler than verb in the MC. This of course only applies to certain sentences.

For example, instead of �Please ensure the door will be locked when you go to bed.� we may simplify the tense of the SC to SPre thus �Please ensure the door is locked when you go to bed.�

Just as �will� + infinitive is replaced with a SPre, the conditional �would� + infinitive could be replaced with a simple past (SPa). So instead of �would be�, we could simplify the tense to �were� as in 3. So 3. is preferred.

[Chan-Seung Lee]

Thanks for your reply.

According to your reply, 'I would appreciate it if you're quiet for the show.' is not right and 'I would appreciate it if you were quiet for the show' is right.
Am I right? Please let me know if my idea is right.

Thanks.

[buddhaheart]