Use of "should" instead of "if" in the conditional

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VictorB
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#1

Сообщение VictorB »

Here's a sentence with a conditional:
The staircase was so narrow that I wondered how I would get past if I met someone coming down.
Would it be grammatically correct to use "should" instead of "if" in the context that suggests that meeting someone on that stairway is very unlikely?
The staircase was so narrow that I wondered how I would get past should I meet someone coming down.
What ails me, kind of, is the sequence of the past "I wondered" and the present "I meet"...
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Dragon27
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#2

Сообщение Dragon27 »

VictorB пишет: 22 апр 2021, 12:57 the present "I meet"...
It's bare infinitive.
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#3

Сообщение VictorB »

Dragon27 пишет: 22 апр 2021, 13:03 It's bare infinitive.
So it is! Thanks )
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Yety
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#4

Сообщение Yety »

VictorB пишет: 22 апр 2021, 12:57 Here's a sentence with a conditional:
Most probably, yes.
Yet, in terms of form, it can hardly be distinguished from an ordinary future-in-the-past. To make sure it's a subjunctive, you might want to shift it into the present - to eliminate any reason for a backshift:
The staircase IS so narrow that I wondered how I will(?)/would get past if I meet(?)/met someone coming down?
{BTW, the question mark looks redundant.}

Let's leave it in the present for clarity and regard it as a conditional with a subjunctive:
The staircase is so narrow that I wonder how I would get past if I met someone coming down.
VictorB пишет: 22 апр 2021, 12:57 Would it be grammatically correct to use "should" instead of "if" in the context that suggests that meeting someone on that stairway is very unlikely?
Why not..?
The staircase is so narrow that I wonder how I would get past should I (happen to) meet someone coming down.
Sounds, they say, a bit more formal, this way.

If you shift it back into the past, the subjunctive should remain intact:
The staircase WAS so narrow that I wonderED how I would get past should I (happen to) meet someone coming down.
Getting past and a chance of meeting someone are still viewed as future actions from the reference point in the past.
VictorB пишет: 22 апр 2021, 12:57 What ails me, kind of, is the sequence of the past "I wondered" and the present "I meet"...
Well...
First, it's not a present form of 'meet' - it is an infinitive that goes after 'should' (the form we used to call 'the Suppositional Mood' back in the horse and buggy times; beats me why they discarded that from-the-days-of-yore scheme of 'Oblique Moods' in teaching these days, btw).

Second, all those 'oblique moods' (subjunctive, conditional, suppositional, whatever) function in a 'parallel' universe of imagination the counterfactual, so to speak. They (the moods of unreality) are not usually affected by the backshift in the real world of the indicative mood.
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#5

Сообщение Michelangelo »

VictorB пишет: 22 апр 2021, 12:57if I met
Here it is Conditional II,
otherwise "should" means Conditional I.
There is no such form for Conditional II.
In conditional III we can use "Had I met ..."
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#6

Сообщение Yety »

Michelangelo пишет: 22 апр 2021, 14:06 otherwise "should" means Conditional I.
Це як? Правда?
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#7

Сообщение VictorB »

Yety,
Thank you so much for the explanation, as always crystal clear and fully comprehensive.
To me, the choice of some grammatical constructions is based on the gut feeling I got from the patterns and numerous example sentences in books, the detailed explanations having been forgotten as time passed.
Now that you have spoon-fed it to me, I don't think I'll forget it very soon :)
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