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[email protected]
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IF..then clause 20 Jul 2014, 15:38
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Hi All,

"If...then clause"...I am reading Manhattan sentence correction for this topic and at the end of the topic they have mentioned that one should never use "Should" in the If..then clause..is that true??

Isn't the sentence "If he is guilty, then he should be punished" correct?

Thanks for the help!!

cheers :-D

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IF..then clause 20 Jul 2014, 23:51
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[email protected]
Hi All,

"If...then clause"...I am reading Manhattan sentence correction for this topic and at the end of the topic they have mentioned that one should never use "Should" in the If..then clause..is that true??

Isn't the sentence "If he is guilty, then he should be punished" correct?

Thanks for the help!!

cheers :-D
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In if...then clause it is not not allowed to use should/would in if part of the clause, but you can use should/would in then part of the sentence.

if should/would... then blah blah.... (wrong)
if blah blah ... then should/would .. (correct)
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IF..then clause 08 Feb 2018, 05:24
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If she would do that, then it will devastate him.

Will this sentence be wrong?
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IF..then clause 08 Feb 2018, 10:28
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somey
If she would do that, then it will devastate him.

Will this sentence be wrong?
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Hi somey, indeed this will be wrong. We should articulate this as:

If she does that, it will devastate him.

While this is not a very GMAT like sentence, the syntax is fine.

p.s. Our book EducationAisle Sentence Correction Nirvana discusses Conditional Constructs, their application and examples in significant detail. If someone is interested, PM me your email-id; I can mail the corresponding section.
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IF..then clause 08 Feb 2018, 15:39
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Hi [email protected],

Thank you for your question.

It's okay to use should/would in the second half of an "if...then..." statement. Your example sentence of "If he is guilty, then he should be punished" is okay.

It's NOT okay to use should/would with the "if" part of the statement. It creates a hypothetical situation with real outcomes, which doesn't make sense:

If she would do her homework, her grades will go up. WRONG
If she does her homework, her grades will go up. RIGHT

I hope this helps!
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IF..then clause 29 Jul 2023, 13:41
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