Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[yoshi-pooh]

Hi everyone!

A.　I wouldn't be surprised if the Democratic Party loses in the next election.
B. I won't be surprised if the Democratic Party loses in the next election.

I think B is the gramatically correct form, in which "won't "is used rather than "wouldn't".

However, I sometimes see sentences like A, even in a very reliabe written text such as Time magazine.

If "would" is used, the grammatically correct verb should be the past form "lost".

C. I wouldn' be surprised if the Democratic Party lost in the next election.

Do you think we ESL learners can use expressions like Sentence A? Or should we stick to B or C?


Thank you!

yoshi-pooh

[cgage2]

All are correct. They are just different ways of expressing the idea.
The difference between wouldn't and won't is the difference between future and conditional. In this case, the future can imply a similer meaning like the conditional.