💡 Coulda gone twice as fast if I had another pair of hands
Let's reconstruct this phrase:
I could have gone twice as fast if I had another pair of hands.
Sometimes I hear this question, "Mixed conditionals, are they even used?" The thing is, yes, of course, they are. The phrase above is one of many examples of the mixed conditional sentences used in everyday speech.
"I could have gone twice as fast" - that's the statement describing an alternative version of the past which happened; it was not twice as fast, but - I could have.... if:
"I had another pair of hands" - and here we're back to the present and we mean it GENERALLY, meaning "If you helped me" (but you do NOT), some things in the past "could have been done differently". But I do not have your pair of hands, that is, your support/help, so things in the past did NOT go fast. But they could have, if... and on and on.
This is an example of "an alternative present" creating "an imaginary past situation".
We also meet a handy expression here:
💡 to have another pair of hands
meaning, of course, help. It's just that saying "help" all the time becomes repetitive, so you absolutely must have some alternative phrasal tools in your arsenal.
#expressions #grammar
Let's reconstruct this phrase:
I could have gone twice as fast if I had another pair of hands.
Sometimes I hear this question, "Mixed conditionals, are they even used?" The thing is, yes, of course, they are. The phrase above is one of many examples of the mixed conditional sentences used in everyday speech.
"I could have gone twice as fast" - that's the statement describing an alternative version of the past which happened; it was not twice as fast, but - I could have.... if:
"I had another pair of hands" - and here we're back to the present and we mean it GENERALLY, meaning "If you helped me" (but you do NOT), some things in the past "could have been done differently". But I do not have your pair of hands, that is, your support/help, so things in the past did NOT go fast. But they could have, if... and on and on.
This is an example of "an alternative present" creating "an imaginary past situation".
We also meet a handy expression here:
💡 to have another pair of hands
meaning, of course, help. It's just that saying "help" all the time becomes repetitive, so you absolutely must have some alternative phrasal tools in your arsenal.
#expressions #grammar