APPENDIX A

CONDITIONAL CLAUSES

(1)

1. If I am well, I will come.

2. If I were old enough, I should be on the first nine. 3. If the ice were strong enough, we would go skating. 4. If it had not been raining, we should have called upon you.

Name the principal clause and the subordinate clause in each of the above sentences.

These subordinate clauses are called conditional clauses. That means, they state something as necessary for the principal clause. I will come, if I am well. I cannot come, if I am not well. My being well is a condition of my coming.

There are two kinds of conditions.

In the first sentence the conditional clause leaves the matter in doubt. I may be well enough or I may not. The verb am takes the form of the present tense. To what time does it refer?

A condition stated as a possibility referring to future time takes the present form of the verb.

In the second sentence, the condition is contrary to the fact. I am not old enough, so I cannot get on the first nine. If I were, I could.

The time is present.

The form of the verb is past.

A condition contrary to fact, in present time, takes the past form of the verb.

In the fourth sentence what is the time referred to ? Is the condition contrary to fact or not?

A condition in past time, contrary to fact, takes the past perfect form.

.(2)

Conditional Clauses as Modifiers

In sentence 1 what does "If I am well" modify? It conditions the verb, but it does not in any degree affect the manner of action. It is a modifier of the subject. You can change its form so as to show this. I, if well, will come.

I, being well, will come.

I, well, will come.

A conditional clause stating a possible attribute of the subject is an adjective clause.

In sentence 3 what does the conditional clause modify? Does it state any possible condition or attribute of the subject?

It modifies the predicate, as if the statement were, "We would go skating on ice hard enough.”

A conditional clause stating a condition of the action expressed by the verb is an adverbial clause.

"If might makes right, where is the room for love?" This condition modifies neither the subject nor the predicate clearly. It is rather equivalent to an independent phrase, "Might making right, where is the room for love?"

Some conditional clauses cannot properly be considered as modifiers, but are independent clauses.

PRESENT

PAST

If I be — future — possible.

If I were

present, contrary to fact.

If I had been past, contrary to fact.

("If I have been " is not conditional at all. "If I am" is now used quite generally in the subjunctive instead of "If I be.”)

APPENDIX C

DIAGRAMS OF SIMPLE SENTENCES

The relations of the various parts of a sentence may be shown by pictures or diagrams in which these parts are arranged according to their relations in the sentence. The following are two plans of diagram:

:

Analyze "More than six hundred years ago, Marco Polo, then only a young boy, set out on a long and dangerous journey, with his father and his father's brother."

DIAGRAMS OF COMPLEX SENTENCES

(See p. 286.)

"There was once a boy who longed to be a man.”

Plan I

Make separate diagrams for the principal, and the subordinate clauses, arranging subjects, predicates, and modifiers as in Plan I for simple sentence on page 344.

Plan II

"Who longed to be a man is given first as a modifier of the subject, boy, of the principal clause, and then is analyzed by itself.

"John Burgoyne had airily said in London that with an army of ten thousand men he could promenade through America, and the brilliant gentleman was now to make good. The bright promise of invasion would be fulfilled and Burgoyne would be the hero of the war."

"I shall always be ready to testify that it has not been through any fault of your excellency.”