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The past tense is sometimes used in English to refer to an 'unreal' situation. So, although the tense is the past, we are usually talking about the present, e.g. in a Type 2 conditional sentence:
If an elephant and a mouse fell in love, they would have many problems.
Although fell is in the past tense, we are talking about a hypothetical situation that might exist now or at any time, but we are not referring to the past. We call this use the unreal past.
Other situations where this occurs are:
The following expressions can be used to introduce hypothetical situations:
- supposing, if only, what if. They are followed by a past tense to indicate that the condition they introduce is unreal:
These expressions can also introduce hypothetical situations in the past and then they are followed by the past perfect.
The verb to wish is followed by an 'unreal' past tense when we want to talk about situations in the present that we are not happy about but cannot change:
NOTE: When we want to talk about situations we are not happy about and where we wantsomeone else to change them, we use to wish followed by would + infinitive:
These two expressions are also followed by an unreal past. The verb is in the past tense, but the situation is in the present.
When we want to talk about a course of action we would prefer someone else to take, we use I'd rather + past tense:
NOTE: the stress can be important in these sentences, to show what our preference is:
Similarly, when we want to say that now is a suitable moment to do something, either for ourselves or for someone else, we use it's time + past tense: