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Conditional Sentences in English: Non-conditional 'conditionals'

Conditional Sentences in English: Non-conditional 'conditionals'

A look at non-conditional conditionals

This article is part of an eight-part series on Conditional Sentences in English:

  1. Introduction: What are 'conditional sentences'?
  2. Factual Conditionals
  3. Predictive Conditionals
  4. Hypothetical Conditionals
  5. Counterfactual Conditionals
  6. Alternatives to IF
  7. Other expressions with IF
  8. Non-conditional ‘conditionals’

Non-conditional ‘conditionals’

Certain warnings/threats with and and not ….or convey a message very similar in meaning to conditional utterances, though they are not conditional constructions:

Come home so late again and I’ll ground you for a month.

Don’t come home so late again or I’ll ground you for a month.

The meaning of these is similar to the conditional contruction: If you come home so late again, I’ll ground you for a month.

Copyright © 2012

Written by JE Webb for UsingEnglish.com

About the author:

I began teaching in 1967, and, apart from post-grad studies, have been teaching and writing ever since. I've taught French and Herman in British secondary schools and FE Colleges, and EFL at schools and universities in China, the Czech Republic, Estonia.

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