Grammatical name/aide

Grammatical name/aide
Message de lehrer82 posté le 10-02-2015 à 21:05:08 (S | E | F)
Hello,
Does anybody know why there is a past tense in the following sentence and how this grammatical form is called:
EXAMPLE " What about we involved the police?"
Thank you for any reply.

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Modifié par lucile83 le 10-02-2015 21:32

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Réponse: Grammatical name/aide de razzor, postée le 10-02-2015 à 21:54:44 (S | E)
Hello,
As an English speaker, the sentence sounds quite strange. Perhaps you mean "What if we involved the police?"
The tense used is the preterite and can be translated as follows:
What if + preterite = Et si + imparfait
Have a good evening!

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Réponse: Grammatical name/aide de here4u, postée le 11-02-2015 à 11:09:30 (S | E)
Hello !
Yes, lehrer, 'What if we involved the police?' is what you'd say ... This preterit isn't temporal (it doesn't indicate a past action), but a suggestion, something that isn't real but could still become a reality.
I'll add that 'What about ...?' is followed by -ing. Here, you'd say 'What about involving the police?'

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Réponse: Grammatical name/aide de violet91, postée le 11-02-2015 à 11:52:36 (S | E)
Hello , lehrer ,
It is called use of the simple past with hypothesis aspect . A way of expressing you would like something to change in the present or the future . We called it 'irréel du présent ' in Latin . You usually find it with 'if ' to begin with . You imagine something done in the present , then you can actually do it if it is possible .
If we involved the police , we might go quicker in the investigation ...

As here4u said above , what about (or how about ) implies something you suggest doing with the person you are speaking to and you are asking whether your proposition suits him / her or not .
Did you find this sentence in a book or did you translate French 'Et si nous impliquions la police ? . What or how about + gerund .
- What about involving the police ?
- you can also say : shall we involve the police ? Which is a modal future ( suggestion )
Is it what you meant ?
Hope this helps , too . Have a nice day .

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