If he were to contact you, and I suppose he will - dává to smysl z pohledu "jistoty"? - Help for English

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Mám za to, že “if he were to…” je vhodné spíše do situaci, kdy to ve skutečnosti moc nečekám (“kdyby tě snad kontaktoval/měl kontaktovat”). Věta z filmu Dark City mi to ale poněkud rozbíjí: If he were to contact you, and I suppose he will…, protože zde to pak nedává moc smysl: pokud bych vyjadřoval, že tomu moc nevěřím, pak bych těžko pokračoval “and I suppose he will”, že… Proč neříct např. “if he happens to contact you..” nebo podobně. Jak je zde přesně prosím chápáno výše uvedené?

DesperateDan

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The construction is ok. It begins by stating a hypothesis or irrealis (“if he were to”) and the speaker then changes his mood in mid-sentence to realis – a firm prediction (“I think he will”) – že to taky udělá, že tomu tak i bude …

If he happened to contact you, and I think he will …, is another way of saying the same thing.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Klotyl

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Příspěvek od DesperateDan vložený před 3 lety

The construction is ok. It begins by stating a hypothesis or irrealis (“if he were to”) and the speaker then changes his mood in mid-sentence to realis – a firm prediction (“I think he will”) – že to taky udělá, že tomu tak i bude …

If he happened to contact you, and I think he will …, is another way of saying the same thing.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Thanks, Dan. It seemed a bit unusual to me exactly for that reason: as the hypothesis is quite unlikely/improbable (“if he were to”), I found it strange that the speaker would then contradict it. I mean, if he thinks that something is going to (likely) happen, why express it as a hypothesis in the first place?

DesperateDan

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The speaker starts by expressing a hypothesis, but then his attitude changes to a prediction. This kind of thing can happen in speech: a new thought occurs (here, a change of modality from hypothesis to prediction) as we're in the process of speaking.

Klotyl

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Příspěvek od DesperateDan vložený před 3 lety

The speaker starts by expressing a hypothesis, but then his attitude changes to a prediction. This kind of thing can happen in speech: a new thought occurs (here, a change of modality from hypothesis to prediction) as we're in the process of speaking.

I see…thanks!

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If he were to contact you, and I suppose he will - dává to smysl z pohledu "jistoty"?

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