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What is the difference between these sentences? Are they the same?

  • If I weren't going to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would be coming to your party.

  • If I weren't going to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would come to your party.

  • If I didn't go to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would come to your party.

  • If I didn't go to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would be coming to your party.

2 Answers 2

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  • (2) If I weren't going to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would come to your party.

is the unmarked version, showing thwarted intent (probably not grudging), with perhaps a hint at apology.

  • (1) If I weren't going to meet my grandma tomorrow, I would be coming to your party.

means the same, but connotes more enthusiasm for the party, a nuance of heartiness (Try keeping me away!)

..........

(3) and (4) show a temporal mismatch and are unacceptable. But note that

  • (5) / (6) If I didn't go to meet my grandma on Saturdays, I would come / be coming to your party tomorrow.

where meeting grandma is an ongoing repetetive event, are possible.

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All of the four sentences listed above basically mean the same. The only difference made in nuance in those sentences is due to the two way to make a future statement. That is, you can say "I am doing something" and "I will do something" to mean you are going to do something in the future. The former has the nuance that you are very certain that you are going to do something or it is fixed that you are going to do something. The latter simply implies your will or your peculation that something will happen. Again, these two things are just two ways to mean what will happen in the future. So, the four sentences above are just using these two ways in each of conditional sentences. Plus, in the latter part of the first sentence("I would be coming"), the be + -ing form is not used to mean "progressive". It just means something that will happen in the future, as explained above.

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