"Se eu tivesse dito não, o que você faria?"
Translation:If I had said no, what would you do?
23 Comments
The English translation doesn't really make sense. It seems like it should all be taking place in the past, i.e. If I had said no, what would you have done?
138
1 year later & the owl accepts your translation (which I also prefer) :D
- 138
I suppose more literally, yes - but hopefully a native/fluent or experienced speaker can help us out :)
That's even more correct than the sentence here. It should be either "Se eu tivesse dito não, o que você teria feito?" or "Se eu dissesse não, o que você faria?", but in informal portuguese we can mix these sentences and it would still make sense. :P
ps.: actually, we can say "Se eu tivesse dito não, o que você faria?", but NEVER "Se eu dissesse não, o que você teria feito?"; the second one doesn't sound usual.
This is a mixed conditional sentence, standard in English. The condition is in the past (If I had said no) and the result is in the present: "what would you do?"
Ex: If Mitt Romney had not lost the election in 2012, he would be president today. (past condition -> present result)
Doesn't it depend? That is, either it's what you would have done when an event happened, or if an an event happened, what would you do now.
Past condition with past result:
If Mitt Romney had won the presidential election, he would have been elated.
Past condition with present result:
If Mitt Romney had won the election of 2012, he would be preparing for another campaign this year.
I had never thought of the mixed conditional sentence, it had passed me by as identifiable object. No doubt, I'll be speaking in mixed conditions from now on. Thanks.
"If Mitt Romney had won the election in 2012, what would you do?". Can the "present result" be a question?
Referencing Romney in a mixed conditional (past condition and present result):
Qs: If Mitt Romney had won the election in 2012, what he would be doing now?"
Ans: If Mitt Romney had won the election of 2012, he would be campaigning for a second term of office.
Ok. "What would he be doing now". - "be doing now". This sounds fine.
But said like this: "If Romney had won the election in 2012, what would he do now?" I can't quite hear it.
Does it have the same meaning?
- 1508
I think your problem is with the progressive form in English, which is always difficult if your language does not have it. "What would he be doing now" indicates an ongoing, maybe longer term, action, e.g. "he would be campaigning." "What would he do now" would indicate a more instantaneous action, e.g. "he would say X." Thus, the once popular little bracelets some very religious kids wore that said WWJD, i.e. "What would Jesus do?", are, I suppose, asking what he would do right now in this instant.
This sentence: "If Romney had won the election in 2012, what would he do now?"
Does this make perfect sense?
- 1508
Sure, as long as the context asked about a specific action. So if we had been discussing the recent bombongs in Aleppo, and what the US should do next, you might ask "If Romney had won the election in 2012, what would he do now?"
If I had told no, What would you do? It was considered wrong. Are "Said" and "Told" interchangeable or not? DL suggests both answers.
- 1508
The English words "say" and "tell" are not interchangeable, though they can sometimes be translated by the same word in other languages. One says a specific thing--say is often followed directly by quotation marks. Telling is more like informing. One tells a story, for instance, passing on the information in it, though one says a prayer, since it is the speaking of the specific words that is important. I can say "No!" I can also tell you that we are not going to do that. It can be confusing, though this difference exists in some other European languages as well.
Okay, thank you for his excellent answer. I will try to memorize these examples. For instance: In case you had talked directly to me about that subject, I could say: "He told me some phrases that will be important for my knowledge."
Tell is followed by an indirect object (tell me, you, him, us, them) with the exception of some fixed expressions: tell the truth, tell a lie, tell jokes, tell stories...
"What did he tell you?" vs "What did he say?"
"He told me that..." vs "He said that..."
Thank you very much. You help me to clarify a little more this hard subject.
paulconsul's sentence is focused entirely on a past hypothetical situation (past condition and past result).
DL's sentence is a valid mixed condition: a past condition that has an effect on the present. Another example of a past condition with present result:
If HRC had campaigned intelligently, Trump would not be president now.
