Future conditional mood

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Every example I've ever seen of the "conditional mood" in Russian has had the very in the past tense.

How do Russians express the conditional mood in the future tense?

For instance, how would a Russian say, "If you said that (implying something that might be said in the future), I don't know how he would react."

Maybe that's not even a conditional mood sentence - I'm not sure.

Would it be ...

Эсли ты это скажешь, то я не знаю как он среагирует.

Thanks!

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

Comments

[oryx_and_crake]

something like that (just note that если is spelled with e), or
Я не знаю, как он среагировал бы, если бы ты это сказал.

[david-us.livejournal.com]

Если, of course, that was just a typo.

This is what I find confusing - in order to express events that might happen IN THE FUTURE, you have used a series of verbs all in the PAST tense. I was trying to construct a sentence that would convey this conditional mood while, at the same time, make it clear that it was in the FUTURE.

Basically, we have two similar sentences talking about something the might happen (i.e. conditional)

Let's say two people are discussing how they are going to break some bad news to a third individual. They are trying to figure out a delicate way of saying it and they are uncertain how the person will react. They are discussing something that has not yet happened and might happen IN THE FUTURE.

"If you said that, I don't know how he would react."

Your translation is:

"Я не знаю, как он среагировал бы, если бы ты это сказал."

Slightly different scenario. Two people are discussing something that was already said to another person. Interrupting, one person says,

"If you said that, I don't know how he would have reacted."

There is a clear sense that this has ALREADY happened in the past. How would a Russian convey this nuance?

Thanks!

David Emerling
Memphis, TN

[oryx_and_crake]

Я не знаю, как он среагирует, если ты это скажешь - this is not conditional, just pure future tense.

Note that English also uses past to express conditional (would instead of will, etc.)

[superslayer18.livejournal.com]

The conditional mood in Russian is made by putting бы + past tense of the verb. It doesn't mean it's in the actual past, I think conditions are supposed to be timeless, so to speak. Если ты это не сказал бы, то я бы не знал... "if you hadn't said it, I wouldn't have known" The thing about conditional in Russian, from what I remember, is that it can only be used to talk about something that can't happen anymore (something that could have happened but didn't), which in itself implies that it would only happen in the past.

Does that make sense?

[krl-pgh.livejournal.com]

"Среагировал бы" is not as much about the future vs. present or past, as about being hypothetical.

In your first sentence the situation is hypothetical: nobody spoke yet, so "Он среагировал бы (ответил бы, ушел бы)" is quite appropriate.

In your second section the situation is not hypothetical, something actually has happened in the past, you just not sure what. So, "Он среагировал (ответил, ушел)" without "бы" and without any conditional is quite appropriate in this case.

[wondershot.livejournal.com]

Gee, where's Dr. Who when you need him?

[zauberer.livejournal.com]

Actually, as far as I know, there's no grammatical conditional mood in Russian. What Russians construct with «бы» is not conditional but subjunctive mood. The meaning conveyed in English by future conditional is conveyed by plain future tense and context in Russian.

[bartoli.livejournal.com]

real condition
Если ты скажешь это, он обидится.

hypothetical
Если бы ты сказал это, он бы обиделся (= но ты не сказал)
Если бы у меня были деньги, я бы купила машину. (но у меня их нет)
Past+ бы (It is not a real Past)

[dj-phunky.livejournal.com]

"If you said that (implying something that might be said in the future), I don't know how he would react."
Я не знаю, как он отреагирует (не могу представить его реакцию), если ты это скажешь (если бы ты так сказал (сказала))

[sa-sha-s.livejournal.com]

The conditional mood in Russian has only one form. Theoretically we can use it for events in the future, but in that case the conditional means an unreal condition.
If we say: "Если ты это скажешь, я не знаю, как он отреагирует", we mean, that something can really be said.
In phrase: "Если бы он завтра сказал тебе это, то как бы ты отреагировал?" the conditional mood means the unreality of the condition. ("I know he'll never say that, but if...")

[azazellodroog.livejournal.com]

i agree. this sounds correct. plus, pay attention to the translation of the verb "to react" - отреагировать is correct, среагировать is not. use среагировать for something rather physical, than mental, like sports and such. here you have a mental reaction in the first place, hence you should use отреагировать.