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If it may rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas
Does this have meaning for you?
"If it may rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas." And this? "It is surprising that it may rain tomorrow, since there was no sign of a cloud all day today."
Yes but the first one I'd put differently. Maybe something like "If it seems like rain tomorrow, ..." or "If it's likely to rain tomorrow, ..."
I agree with Jim. Also you can say:
"If it SHOULD rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas" or "SHOULD it rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas." On your second sentence I would replace "may" with one of two other modal (or auxiliary) verbs (might or could) instead. Thus: " It is surprising that it MIGHT rain tomorrow, since there was no sign of a cloud all day today" or " It is surprising that it COULD rain tomorrow, since there was no sign of a cloud all day today"
Brennus,
Are you sure about the first you mentioned? "Should" gives a sense of obligation; and as far as I can remember, you cannot use it in an conditional sentence (at least that way). That first sentence doesn't sound natural to me.
I agree with César. I don't think that "should" can be a suitable word in that sentense.
The first sentence, 'If it rains tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas' or as Jim stated, 'If it's likely to rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas', are likely the right way of using it.
The second statement is situational. Suppose if it is a conversation after listening to the whether forecast, then the sentence sounds appropriate. No comments on that. Beunnus, please try reframing the sentence using SHOULD as it sounds inapt.
Couldn't it work like this?
"If, as you say, it may rain tomorrow..." (With stress of "if")
How about this as an extension?
I need to explain to my ESL students why we cannot place a modal verb in the protasis in first example but can in the second example. Does anyone have a simple way of explaining that? ?If you must be joking, I’ll be mad at you. If Chas may get drunk, I am not coming to the party. Thanks for any help you can give.
Just tell them that it sounds convoluted and awkward. If need be, pick it apart logically. Doing this should show them that this is probably not what they would mean to say anyway.
Brennus' use of "should" is perfectly correct. Formal and perhaps a litttle old fashioned but correct nonetheless.
I will, however, note that his use of "should" twice in the same sentence where some other alternative is possible is probably not the best choice stylistically.
The first sentence is awkward, in that it's hard to come up with a situation in which someone might legitimately say that.
Normally there are rules for tenses in conditionals, namely, present + future for the first conditional, one step back for second conditional, two steps back for third conditional. First conditional: If I stay, she will go. Second conditional: If I stayed, she would go. Third conditional: If I had stayed, she would have gone. (Keep in mind that would is the past tense of will, that makes it a bit more logical.) This doesn't mean that nothing else is allowed; it just means that other constructions could only be legitimately used in very specific circumstances.
>>Brennus,
Are you sure about the first you mentioned? "Should" gives a sense of obligation; and as far as I can remember, you cannot use it in an conditional sentence (at least that way). That first sentence doesn't sound natural to me.<< Note that the obligative sense of "should" is only one of its senses, and that is in indicative mood at that, whereas "should" is being used here in subjunctive mood (albeit unmarked morphologically) to begin with, and has the meaning here of "In the event of <action>". This case is roughly equivalent to: "If it were to rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas" or "Were it to rain tomorrow, people should take their umbrellas." One note though is that this sense of "should" and the "were .. to" construction are rather formal in nature. Another note though is this usage, whether you use "may", "should", or "were ... to", seems somewhat awkward, and I myself would probably put it more like: "If it might rain tomorrow, then people should take their umbrellas."
Here is a related question:
1. (I have just been told that Peter will certainly be at the conference that is taking place tomorrow.) –If he’s going to be there tomorrow, I'll have an opportunity to talk to him. 2. (I do not know whether Peter will be at the conference tomorrow.) –If he is there tomorrow, I'll have an opportunity to talk to him. Do you think both sentences are OK? |