[etni] Re: grammar question
- From: Bari Nirenberg <bnirenberg@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Etni <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:49:28 +0200
I got a lot of answers to this, mainly off-list, so I thought I'd sum them
up here. First of all, I think some people really didn't understand my
question or didn't take a good look at the sentence, so I'll rewrite it
here:
"If you keep it, don't blame me for what happens."
Several people responded that this is the 1st or zero conditional. Clearly
this IS the first conditional -- the "if" clause is in the present simple
and the main verb in the result clause is in the imperative (NOT the present
simple!) -- "don't blame me". However, that doesn't answer my question, as
the verb I was asking about was the verb "happens". This verb is not part
of the conditional -- it's in the prepositional phrase at the end of the
sentence.
Others suggested that this was a case of temporals, but there is no obvious
temporal at all in this sentence.
Just a note -- those who presumed that because I'm an English speaker, I
haven't studied the rules of grammar are very wrong. I DO know the rules
and, of course, I'm very familiar with conditionals and temporals, as I have
to teach them.
In any case, I think that those who said temporals were correct.
Apparently, the preposition "for" can also act as a temporal (though we
don't normally teach this -- I've certainly never seen it in any of our
grammar books, but I did find it online). There's no "mistake" or use of
less formal English here, as Batya suggested -- this is absolutely correct
English and, in fact, I believe the use of "will" here would be incorrect.
Of course, if there's a grammarian out there with a better explanation, I'm
listening!
Bari
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