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What does "Should we not be able to" mean in the following sentence? does it have a positive meaning or a negative?

Should we not be able to assist you at present, we will be keeping your information on file for future possibilities.

2 Answers 2

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It's a flowery way of saying if. It basically means the same as:

If we cannot assist you now, we will keep your information on file for future possibilities.

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Should we not be able to assist you at present, we will be ......

You can use 'should' instead of 'if' to refer to a possible event or situation in the future.

So if you read the clause with "if" as follows, the sentence will come across:

If we are not able to assist you at present, we will be ......

You can also use if and should together to convey this sense as follows:

If we should not be able to assist you at present, we will be ....

However, the use of should in the forms of 'should + subject + verb' and 'if + subject + should + verb' is somewhat formal.

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