What type of conditional is this? "If Julie went to the party last night, she definitely saw what happened."


I really cannot understand why the sentence is correct and what type of conditional it is.


If Julie went to the party last night, she definitely saw what happened.


Other examples that confuse me: If you don't know the answer, you didn't do your homework. If the results didn't come out yesterday, they will come out today.



Answer



The conditionals taught in EFL lessons are taught as examples of how conditionals can be. They aren't meant to be models of every type of conditional. They are meant to be patterns to practice when you are starting to learn the language. They shouldn't be understood as an exhaustive description of every type of tense and modal verb possible in conditional sentences.


There are really only two types of conditionals, those that use tense in the same way as other sentences and those that use backshifted verb forms ( examples of which would be those conditionals termed second or third conditionals in language teaching).


In the Original Poster's example, the tenses are being used in the normal way. In other words, the past simple verb forms are just being used to indicate past time.


The sentence just indicates that the speaker guarantees the truth of Julie saw what happened if the proposition Julie went to the party is true.


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