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I was told that a bare infinitive phrase followed by "and" and a sentence could mean "if ... then ...." For example, "Give John 10 dollars, and he will ask for 100 dollars" means "If you give John 10 dollars, he will ask for 100 dollars."

What about the following example? Does it sound perfectly natural?

The country is famous for its rapid public transportation network. Visit a garden in the north in the morning, and you could be climbing a mountain in the south in the afternoon.

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  • The sentence and grammar applied is correct. Nicely done.
    – user90322
    Commented Feb 25, 2019 at 11:29

1 Answer 1

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For the "John" example, This is the case. Both sentences have the same meaning. Another example of this is

Give a mouse a cookie, and it will want more

is the same as

If you give a mouse a cookie, then it will want more

however, the "garden" statement isn't causal(it doesnt suggest that one event will cause the other). that is the only difference. It reads correctly

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  • But there is no causal relation holding in the garden example; one could climb a mountain in the south without visiting a garden in the north.
    – Apollyon
    Commented Feb 28, 2019 at 9:31
  • One could also not give money to john, or a cookie to a mouse. one could spend that money for john on cookies to eat for oneself Commented Mar 4, 2019 at 10:22
  • I am talking about the logical formula p --> q implicit in the construction "Imperative, and S +V."
    – Apollyon
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 1:24
  • Is the example in the OP saying visiting a northern garden could cause a person to climb a southern mountain?
    – Apollyon
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 1:25
  • The examples you offered all describe a causal relation.
    – Apollyon
    Commented Mar 5, 2019 at 1:36

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