meaning - Confusion about "Past Real Conditional"



The Past Real Conditional describes what you used to do in particular real-life situations. It suggests that your habits have changed and you do not usually do these things today.



E.g.:





  • If I went out with my friends, I usually spent the whole night out. I can’t do that anymore.




  • When I had time off, I always travelled. Now I’m too busy.




  • When he was younger, he walked everywhere. Now he uses his car.




  • I had more time for my hobbies when I was younger.





Check this sentence If I went out with my friends, I usually spent the whole night out. I can’t do that anymore.


What does it mean by saying "I can’t do that anymore." (what does "that" refer to?)


Does it mean:


A: Currently, I don't go out with my friends. ("do that" ="go out with my friends")


or


B: Currently, I do go out with my friends, but don't spend the whole night out. ("do that" ="spend the whole night out")



What about this sentence: "When I had time off, I always travelled. Now I’m too busy."?
This sentence is clear in that now I don't have time and thus I don't travel It does not mean: Now I have time but I don't travel even I have the free time.


Here is my thinking, but I am not sure I am right. They said: "This habit did exist in the past but does not exist now", then there is a good chance that the action in the conditional sentence (not the action in the main clause) did exist in the past but does not exist now. So ...




  • "If I went out with my friends, I usually spent the whole night out."
    means now I don't go out with my friends any more.




  • "When I had time off, I always travelled."
    means now, I don't have time off any more




I DO NOT think




  • "If I went out with my friends, I usually spent the whole night out."
    means now, I still go out with my friends but I don't spend the whole night out any more.




  • "When I had time off, I always travelled."
    means now, I still have time off but I don't travel any more




Because if that is the case, then they would become unreal and we would say



  • "If I went out with my friends, I would spend the whole night out."


and



  • "If I had time off, I would travel."


A man in this post said:


For the sentence "when I went to his house, I used to take a bottle of wine.", we could understand it as "Perhaps he moved away, you quit being friends, or he died. Your original sounded more like you quit taking wine on visits. But, either meaning could be used with either form. Context would determine what had changed."


He also said:



If I went to a friend's house for dinner, I used to take a bottle of wine or some flowers.


It's likely you still go to friends' houses for dinner, but you no longer take wine or flowers. (Perhaps you are now in financially strained circumstances and can no longer afford the gifts.)


If I went to a friend's house for dinner, I took a bottle of wine or some flowers.


It's likely you have stopped or reduced going to friends houses. (Perhaps you have moved to a new location and know few people here/your social life is less active.)


Again, these are connotations, not denotations: it is what I-the-reader feels when reading the stand-alone sentence without anything else to tell me what is happening. In a conversation, the context, the background, the other sentences before and after could make either sentence work in either situation.





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