III. DESCRIPTIVE/INTERPRETIVE FUNCTION OF MODALS: DESCRIPTIONS FROM THE SPEAKER'S POINT OF VIEW (OPINION)

5. Hypothetical Conditionals: Conditions in Abnormal or Hypothetical (Imaginary) Situations

Conditionals have already been covered in another chapter. A condition is when you have a necessary cause for something else to be possible. In other words, for the desired effect or situation to happen or be true, you need a cause to happen first—the necessary cause is a condition for the action or situation in the effect to happen or be true.

However, the type of situation where we use these modals of conditional possibilities is very specific—it is used for situations in which the needed condition for a desired result would normally be possible, but in the specific situation we are talking about it is not desirable or possible.

We use it in a situation where we explain that we would normally be able to do to make a situation happen, but then we explain why it (the conditional cause) is not desirable or possible.

Here, the modal 'would' is used in the conditional clause. This is followed by a clause explaining why the conditional cause won't happen or why it is not possible; this clause will usually contain the connecting words 'but' or 'however', which show an opposite idea.

Other verb tenses can be used for this type of conditional. Different written or spoken forms are used for each.