Hope/expect

” Hopefully, I don’t need to deal with any criminal behavior at all.” I believe most people want this idea to be true through their life. In a previous essay, I wrote the above sentence and a friend made a correction:

Hopefully, I won’t need to deal with any criminal behavior at all.

It’s not a general truth. I don’t know if I’m going to encounter criminal behavior afterwards. ‘Hopefully’ calls for a future tense sentence.

From Sentence Dictionary:
1. We need to be prepared to fight, but hopefully it won’t come to that.
2. Hopefully I’ll be home by nine tonight.
3. Hopefully the audience will dissolve into fits of laughter.

I used ‘can’ sometimes and I did find some sentences with ‘can’, but only a few:
1. Hopefully, we can make history come alive for the children.
2. We can hopefully reach some kind of agreement.
3. Hopefully a satisfactory solution can be reached without much blood letting.

I feel ‘hope’ is similar to ‘expect‘ which I wrote about before. The clause behind ‘hope’ or ‘hopefully’ sounds better when it’s in the future.

Past Tense with a Model Verb

Thinking about the incident, of the six missing people, two were adults. That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t make a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as planned or abort the hike and head back.

I wrote about a flash flooding incident in which there were six people missing. However, I hesitated about how I should write the sentence. I think I had many choices.

1. That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t make a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as planned or abort the hike and head back.

2. That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t make a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as had planned or abort the hike and head back. (X)

3.  That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t have made a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as planned or abort the hike and head back.

4.  That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t have made a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as had planned or abort the hike and head back. (X)

5. That’s to say, even a grown-up couldn’t have made a correct judgement about whether they should trudge into the mountains as had been planned/as they had planned or abort the hike and head back.

If I could rewrite it again, I would probably choose sentence 3 or 5. ‘Couldn’t make a correct judgement‘ could talk about a current or future situation while ‘couldn’t have made a correct judgement‘ means that I was talking about a past event. My language partner told me that actually both of them meant the same thing in this context. Besides, I tried to use ‘as had planned’, but it’s not idiomatic.

One more thing: I was taught that ‘whether/if’ could be followed with ‘or not’ optionally. However, it seems it sounds better to have it than not.

A long hypothetical paragraph

If I found a lost phone, I would try to find the number that its owner called most frequently. I would see if I could reach any of the owner’s friends on the contact list. I would ask around to see if the owner was still around. If still unsuccessful, I would head straight to the police and give them the phone. I would never sleep with the phone and hope someone would notice that his phone was* missing and call. Moreover, batteries rarely last for more than two days. What would I do then? Besides this, I would never take off the case, either, not to mention selling the phone for 5000 USD.

The above is what I wrote about the Apple employee lost a pre-released iPhone 4, which ended up being bought by Gizmodo, a tech media company. The phone was picked up by Brian Hogan and sold to the company for 5000 USD. The whole event sounded so unreal.

A long paragraph about hypothetical situations sounds strange to me, but it seems ok to write it this way. I was pretty uncertain about *was. I had several choices in mind:

1. someone would notice that his phone was* missing
2. someone would notice that his phone has been* missing
3. someone would notice that his phone had been* missing

As it’s a hypothetical sentence, it’s written in the past tense. Thus, its clause should go a step further into the past, so I think #3 is the most grammatical one, but #1 can also work here as well. However, as discussed in Hypothetical (tense agreement), ‘is’ and ‘has been’ might also work if the situation is likely to happen right now.

I thought I DIDN’T/WOULDN’T

“I thought I didn’t have to visit any car dealerships for the next 10 years.”

I made this sentence myself. I bought a car two years ago and it was natural to think that I didn’t need to visit a dealership in the short term as I was not going to buy another in the near future. However, my wife suddenly wanted to buy a new car, so we are visiting dealers again two years later.

I was confused about which one is better:
1. I thought I didn’t have to visit any car dealerships for the next 10 years. (I was talking about what I thought and it was considered a truth then.)
2. I thought I wouldn’t have to visit any car dealerships for the next 10 years. (I was talking the future from a past time point.)
3. I thought I won’t have to visit any car dealerships for the next 10 years. (This is confusing. As I’m seeing cars again, I’ll definitely visit dealerships. I don’t think I won’t have to visit them.)

This kind of question never stops bothering me:
1. You won’t believe/ You wouldn’t believe
2.The thing you wound’t know

My online friend changed DIDN’T to WON’T. It’s really very strange. This topic came to me when I was watching this video (How to Describe a RAINY Day in English) from Bob the Canadian. About five seconds into the video, Bob said, ‘I thought it would be a good time to go outside with my camera.’ Thus, I would use ‘I thought * would . . .’ afterwards.

I’d use #1, “I thought didn’t…“, to make a counterfactual comment. For example, my boss at work had led me to believe that I didn’t need to visit any more car dealerships for the next 10 years. Today, however, he’s telling me to visit one. In this case, I would say “I thought that I didn’t have to visit…” (but now it appears that I do need to visit one).

Wordy McWordface from the thread on Wordreference below.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/wont-or-wouldnt-or-didnt.3866084/

Couldn’t help V-ing

When I played with my son, I was also depressed* when the time was up and couldn’t help press ‘ignore limit’ to finish that game.

When I was writing, I thought of a sentence like this:
The $10,000 loan from the bank helped her (to) start her own business. (From Cambridge)

So I chose ‘help + a basic verb form’. If I had looked it up in the dictionary, I would have known that I made a mistake.

can’t/couldn’t help (Cambridge)
If you can’t/couldn’t help something, such as acting in a particular way or making a particular remark, you are/were not able to control or stop it:
It was awful, but I couldn’t help laughing.
“Stop giggling!” “I can’t help it!”
I can’t help thinking (= my true feeling is that) she’d be better off without him.

I feel this is something I knew, but forgot. 😦

————————–

*Depressed is not the best choice of word here. It means to be in a state of sadness. Usually it goes on for a longer period of time e.g. unsuccessful at a job application, someones passing etc. But this would only last a few seconds or maybe 1-2 minutes, so it is not the best choice here.

Would rather you be

“I would rather you be a man who did exactly as he pleased” from the movie The Tourist.

Here is an example form Lexico: ‘she’d rather die than cause a scene,’ and this is also the only version I know of using ‘would rather.’ The verb is always in its present basic form.

1. I would rather finish it today.
2. I would rather take a rest now.
3. I would rather work than play with my sons at this moment.

We can add a noun between ‘rather’ and the verb in the sentence!! I didn’t know this. After I looked it up online, the sentence is still odd.

‘I would rather you were a man who did exactly as he pleased’ seems to be a more acceptable one. This kind of sentence implied a hypothetical situation, just like ‘It’s time‘:

1. It’s time I listened to you.
2. It’s about time I stopped playing.

That being said, ‘be’ is acceptable, esp in American English.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/id-rather-we-would-have-our-own-place.1863322/

Dared to. . .

I dared not to move at that time, afraid that I would lose my sight with a tiny twitch.[edited]

1. He dared to jump off a very tall building.
2. He dared jump off a very tall building.
3. He dared not to jump off a very tall building.      (X)
4. He dared not jump off a very tall building.
5. He didn’t dare to jump off a very tall building.     (X)
6. He didn’t dare jump off a very tall building.

I thought ‘dare’ could be followed with or without ‘to’ until I was corrected. ‘To’ is not used in negative sentences where there is ‘dare’. Besides this, I found some sentences like this from SentenceDictionary.com:

1. He had dared to speak out against injustice, and overnight he became a national hero. 
2. Longtime residents recall seeing police cars overturned and set afire because the officers had dared tried to patrol here.
   

Also, some people use this in their writings.

However, someone told me these sentences don’t sound natural. I might write it in other ways if I need to.

1. He had dared to jump off a very tall wall by the age of 3.     (X)
2. He had dared jump off a very tall wall by the age of 3.     (X)
3. He hadn’t dared to jump off a very tall wall by the age of 3.     (X)
4. He hadn’t dared jump off a very tall wall by the age of 3.     (X)

if clause with WILL

“Thus, as insurance companies have long suspected, juries make larger awards to victims if an insurance company will have to pay.”
From Influence: Science and Practice, pg227

I was taught not to put WILL in an if-clause, but heard about it several times. In the book I’m reading, it appears again. Pasted below is the only thing I can find online, explaining about the difference.

First, the original sentence is written in the present tense. Such makes it sound like a truth even though it’s not always the case in my opinion. Thus, let’s compare the sentences below:

1. Thus, as insurance companies have long suspected, juries will make larger awards to victims if an insurance company will have to pay.
2. Thus, as insurance companies have long suspected, juries will make larger awards to victims if an insurance company will has to pay.

The second is what we are familiar with. If the precondition (an insurance company has to pay) happens, juries will award victims more. As for the first, it carries the implication of prediction: if juries can predict NOW that an insurance company will pay, juries will award more to victims. So little is the difference that I think I can still stick to the no-will-in-if-clause rule safely.

The website below lists several uses:

1. “I don’t know if it will happen.” 
   (If is equal to whether.)
2. “If you’ll just take a seat, please. Mr Smith won’t be long.” 
   (A polite way to make a polite request or express your annoyance)
3. “Call it a gentle madness if you will, but I recommend sharing it.”
   (From the COCA, pompous??)
4. “If you won’t do it, then I will!” 
   (Expressing willingness)
5. “If it’ll make you happy, I’ll do it for you.”
   (This example is what I think fit the use of the topic sentence.)

‘If’ And ‘Will’ *Can* Go Together

When . . . will

Social scientists now have a good idea of when bystanders will offer emergency aid.

Influence: Science and Practice, pg 125

I wondered what the difference was between
1. when bystanders offer emergency aid.
2. when bystanders will offer emergency aid.
3. when bystanders would offer emergency aid.

Sentence 1 should follow something like this: when bystanders offer emergency aid, they are convinced that an emergency situation exists. Or we can see it’s an indirect question: ‘When do bystanders offer emergency aid?’ ‘I don’t know but I think scientists have a good idea of when bystanders offer emergency aid.’

Sentence 2 follows with a further sentence: They will offer emergency aid when they are convinced that an emergency situation exists. ‘When will bystanders offer emergency aid?’

Sentence 3 is a hypothetical one: They would offer emergency aid if they were convinced that an emergency situation existed. But rarely are they convinced that an emergency exists. When they see one, they won’t offer help. ‘When would bystanders offer emergency aid?’

That is to say, the first sentence focuses on a general situation and the other two emphasize future scenarios. I need to come up with something to explain them. Then I can use them. 😦

https://forum.wordreference.com/forums/english-only.6/post-thread

https://jakubmarian.com/will-after-when-in-english/#:~:text=When%20we%20use%20%E2%80%9Cwhen%E2%80%9D%20as,will%E2%80%9D%20when%20expressing%20the%20future.

Future and Present

“Sometimes students will tell me that they didn’t get their homework done and then they’ll give me a reason and I’ll be skeptical.”

Bob the Canadian

Here is a quote from a YouTuber. I couldn’t understand why ‘will’ is used in this sentence even after I review the previous thread: The thing you wound’t know.

Will (From the Cambridge dictionary)

• Certainty in the future
• Making predictions, Conditional sentences, and Habitual events (predictions based on previous experiences) are similar in my opinion.
• Intentions and decisions, Willingness and offers, and promises are similar
• Requests and invitations
• Commands
• General truths (If it is about general truths, then using will make me feel the writer wants to emphasize it.)
• Habitual events
• Disapproval
• Inanimate objects (things): how they respond to humans, most typically in the negative form won’t
  • The car won’t start.
  • The door won’t open. It’s stuck.

I actually feel General Truths, Habitual Events, and Disapproval are somehow related. The examples are all about something considered bad or annoying, but I couldn’t relate any of these categories to the topic sentence until I read the replies on Wordreference.

In British English that use of will to express a recurrent present habit, often an irritating one, is common.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/sometimes-students-will-tell-me-that-they-didnt-get.3751002/

Then I wondered if I wanted to express a general truth, how should I have written it. Several versions are acceptable:

1. Sometimes students tell me they CAN’T finish their homework. When they tell me why, I’m usually skeptical.
   This is more general. It says that their homework is always too difficult or too much, so they can’ finish it.
   
2. Sometimes students tell me they COULDN’T finish their homework. When they tell me why, I’m usually skeptical.
   This is more specific. It talks about the homework yesterday or the day before.
   
3. Sometimes students tell me they DIDN’T finish their homework. When they tell me why, I’m usually skeptical.
   This sounds like they didn’t finish it on purpose.
   
4. Sometimes students tell me they HAVEN’T FINISHED their homework. When they tell me why, I’m usually skeptical.
   
5. Sometimes students tell me they DON’T finish their homework. When they tell me why, I’m usually skeptical. (x)

If I change the structure, the present tense is more acceptable:

1. Students sometimes don’t finish their homework. When they give me a the reason, I’m skeptical. (‘The’ is the natural one.)