Lombard/Hypothetical construction

The hypothetical construction: comparison between English and Lombard edit

In Lombard, as in English there is the hypothetical period, the correspondence between the verb tenses used in Lombard and in English is shown in the table below.

Correspondence between the verbs used in the hypothetical construction in English and in Lombard
Type in English in Lombard
0 verb used in
the if-clause
Present Simple Present Indicative
verb used in
the main clause
Present Simple Present Indicative
1 verb used in
the if-clause
Present Simple Present Indicative
or Simple Future Indicative
verb used in
the main clause
Future Simple Simple Future Indicative
2 verb used in
the if-clause
Past Simple Imperfect Subjunctive
verb used in
the main clause
Present Conditional Present Conditional
3 verb used in
the if-clause
Past Perfect Past Perfect Subjunctive[1]
or Imperfect Indicative (sometimes in colloquial form)
verb used in
the main clause
Past Conditional Past Conditional
or Imperfect Indicative (sometimes in colloquial form)
Note
  1. There is also the use of the Past Conditional instead fo the past perfect subjunctive.

Other forms for the second type hypothetical construction edit

Instead of Imperfect Subjunctive in de if-clause you can also use constructions like:

(1) Imperfect Subjunctive of the verb "vesser" + de[1] + verb in the infinitive form

or

(2) Imperfect Subjunctive of the verb "havégh" + de[1] + verb in the infinitive form
Note
  1. a b prepositions, or "da"dependig on the dialect
Examples (in Milanese dialect):
(1) se fussi de trovàll, ghe parlaria mi
(If I were to find him I would talk to him)
(2)se gh'havessi de trovàll, ghe parlaria mi
(If I were to find him I would talk to him)

Eventually the hypothetical period can be realized without if by using instead al (or its dialectal variants) + infinitive. This construction is confined to cases where the hypothesis concerns something that could happen and not something that could be in a certain way and when the subject (implied) of the hypothetical clause coincides with that of the main one.

Example (in Milanese dialect):
(3) al trovàll, ghe parlaria. (If I happened to find him, I would talk to him / When I find him, I 'll talk to him.)
in which "al + verb in the infinitive form" is equivalent to saying "the moment the subject of the main sentence happened to + verb in the infinitive form'".