0
  1. It wouldn't be a big deal, even if you didn't come to party tomorrow.

As far as my knowledge goes I know, this is a conditional sentence and this conditional is used to talk about things that are either very less likely to happen in future or something that's untrue in present.

Now in this sentence use of tomorrow is clearly indicating that speaker is talking about future, but this "even if you didn't come to party tomorrow" sounds a bit weird to me.

Is this sentence grammatically correct and can it be used in this sense ??

Improve this question
2
  • 2
    It's supposed to sound weird; that's a signal that a fantasy universe is being created, in which it's the future, the party is over, you didn't come, and it wasn't a big deal. And btw, it's gotta be come to the party, if it's the one you're both taking for granted. Also, nobody but your English teacher will ever call this "second conditional".
    – John Lawler
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 2:35
  • 1
    English does not have numbered conditionals; this is a myth / lie / dangerous training-model that brings real and lasting harm. 1, 2 No linguist has anything to do with it, because it's a broken and dangerous model that fails to describe English or to predict native speakers' patterning.
    – tchrist
    Commented Feb 16, 2021 at 4:01

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

Usually it would be "come to the party". However the word party can be a verb so "come to party" is not actually wrong. The first would be referring to an event, the second to a behaviour (partying).

The construction "It wouldn't be a big deal, even if you didn't..." is fine. While set in the future it is looking back hypothetically from a time further in the future. You could also have "It won't be a big deal, even if you don't...", though this is less hypothetical and more definite.

Improve this answer
0

Look at this sentence:

It won't be a big deal, even if you don't come to the party tomorrow.

This is talking about a real or probable situation - something that might or will happen tomorrow.

If you talk about a hypothetical situation- something that could never happen, or is very unlikely- you backshift the verbs in both clauses (you may have come across backshifting in reported speech):

It wouldn't be a big deal, even if you didn't come to the party tomorrow.

So, if you were talking about a hypothetical situation, your sentence would be perfectly valid.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .