Conditional sentences

[Cloudgazer]

Originally Posted by pjt33

Prescriptivist nonsense!

Indeed!

The following is a general comment, not directed at anyone in particular.

Given everything I've said above to help Irmamar try and make sense of this issue, I still come down to the fact that only each individual knows what they are trying to say with a particular attempt at communication. If we happen to share agreement in the way the communication is to be understood, that's great. But even if we aren't in 100% agreement, many times the core idea is communicated anyway and I don't think it's useful nor forthright to deny that for the sake of "propriety". Not that precise or stylized communication doesn't have its place, it's just that in many settings neither precision nor style are needed (or wanted).

Trying to capture a living language into a finite set of static rules is doomed to failure. And that gives me great joy! But it is fun and useful to analyze things to see how they function.