Diary - I bought some bedding a few days ago

[Maybo]

This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

I bought some bedding a few days ago from a good company, but I don't think the quality of the products live up to the price. The texture is coarse and hard after washing. Most importantly, I can't tolerate the smell of the bed sheet. It keeps releasing a chemical odor.

 

[emsr2d2]

A few days ago, I bought some bedding a few days ago from a good reputable (but expensive) company, but I don't think the quality of the products lives up to the price. The texture material is has become coarse and hard stiff after washing. Most importantly, I can't tolerate the smell of the bed sheet. It keeps releasing - the sheet has a strong chemical odor.

See above.

If the smell doesn't go after a couple of washes, I'd return them. I've heard of duvets and mattresses having a strange smell but never sheets. Also, if they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets, they shouldn't have changed texture so much simply from washing them (unless you dried them outside - that always makes sheets and towels go hard). If you washed them in a washing machine and dried them in a tumble dryer, I would expect them to stay nice and soft.

 

[Maybo]

If the smell doesn't go after a couple of washes, I'd return them.

When can I use this type of conditional sentence?: "If...(present tense), (would)"
I was taught I need to use "if... (past tense), would", but I keep seeing "If...(present tense), (would)".

If you washed them in a washing machine and dried them in a tumble dryer, I would expect them to stay nice and soft.

In that situation, you use "if... (past tense), would".

if they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets

Why don't you use "they were meant"? Is it because "they're meant" already have the hypothetical meaning"?

 

[emsr2d2]

When can I use this type of conditional sentence?: "If...(present tense), (would)"
I was taught I need to use "if... (past tense), would", but I keep seeing "If...(present tense), (would)".

l don't understand what you mean. I used "If ... I'd ...". "I'd" = "I would" so it's exactly the "If ... would" construction.

In that situation, you use "if... (past tense), would".

No, I didn't. I used "If the smell doesn't go". That's the use of the present tense to refer to the future.

Why don't you use "they were meant"? Is it because "they're meant" already have the hypothetical meaning"?

There's nothing hypothetical about it. "If they are meant to" refers to a habitual action. I mean that if the company intends them to be considered luxurious, they shouldn't be damaged easily by washing them.

 

[jutfrank]

If the smell doesn't go after a couple of washes, I'd return them.

This is a relatively unusual mixed conditional. Normally, in real future conditionals, you see 'will' in the result clause, not 'would', which is typically used in unreal second conditionals.

@Maybo—emsr2d2 has used this nice mixed conditional sentence to give you a real piece of advice. If it helps you understand better, you can imagine ... if I were you tagged onto the end.

 

[Maybo]

Also, if they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets, they shouldn't have changed texture so much simply from washing them

Is this also mixed conditional? "if they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets, they shouldn't have changed texture so much (if they had been washed)"?

 

[Tarheel]

I can't help with conditionals. I've never been able to get my head around them. (I do know about the zero conditional, which isn't really a conditional.)

I would end the above sentence at "much," putting a period (full stop) after that word. Either that or delete the parentheses.

I would be surprised if the sheets changed texture at all.

 

[Maybo]

I can't help with conditionals. I've never been able to get my head around them. (I do know about the zero conditional, which isn't really a conditional.)

I would end the above sentence at "much," putting a period (full stop) after that word. Either that or delete the parentheses.

I added the parentheses because when I see "would have changed/should have changed", I expect it pairs with something like "I had/hadn't washed".

 

[Tarheel]

There are lots of things that "would have changed" or "should have changed" can go with, but I don't quite see how they go with "I had washed" or "I hadn't washed".

 

[emsr2d2]

I added the parentheses because when I see "would have changed/should have changed", I expect it pairs to be paired with something like "I had/hadn't washed".

I don't understand what you mean by this. Please give us a full sentence in which you make those pairings.

 

[Maybo]

Third conditional sentence:
If I had cleaned the house, I could have gone to the restaurant.
If I hadn’t helped him, he would have died.

I mean the tense.

 

[Tarheel]

If I had cleaned the house, I could have gone to the restaurant.

He/she did not clean the house and did not go to the restaurant.

 

[Tarheel]

If I hadn’t helped him, he would have died.

He/she did help him; he did not die.

 

[Maybo]

if they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets, they shouldn't have changed texture so much simply from washing them

Therefore, when I saw the underlined part, I expected "they're meant to" would be "they had been meant". That's why I asked if it is a mixed conditional sentence.

 

[Tarheel]

@Maybo I think you're confusing yourself. The point is that the sheets shouldn't have changed texture.

 

[Maybo]

@Maybo I think you're confusing yourself. The point is that the sheets shouldn't have changed texture.

I understand the meaning. I’m asking about the grammar of the conditional sentence.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, you may call it a mixed conditional.

If they're meant to be luxurious soft sheets [talking about a general present fact]

they shouldn't have changed texture so much simply from washing them [talking about something that happened in the past]

On the surface, the logic may look like a backward inference: A fact about the present means that something didn't happen in the past, but actually it's an inference from past to present: what emsr2d2 means is that the fact that they really did change texture means that they are not luxurious.