what's the correct tense here: Is it "the past tense" or "the present tense"? "What if I miss the bus?" "What if I were late to dinner?" "What if I called her tomorrow?" "What if I don't understand?"
1 Answer
You may use either tense depending on the context or on what you want to convey.
You can even use will:
what if you will go
meaning what if you are willing to go.
Note that I didn’t use “I”: “what if I will go” which is grammatically correct, but illogical, or at least odd since I’m questioning myself if I’m willing to go.
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why did he use the past tense here:What if I called her tomorrow. Although he talked about future Jun 5, 2014 at 12:28
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It’s the same structure (grammatically second conditional) as “If I called her tomorrow then…” Jun 5, 2014 at 12:32