89.4 Making hypotheses
Hypotheses fall into two categories:(a) about an event which may or may not take place, using Subjunctive II with present
or future reference (see also 39.2–3):Wenn du mich liebtest, würdest du mich heiraten.
If you loved me you would marry me.Wenn er in der Stadt wäre, würde er uns besuchen.
If he was in town he would visit us.Wäre er in der Stadt, so würde er uns besuchen.It is probable that ‘du’ doesn’t love him and that ‘he’ is not in town, but in principle
these conditions could be fulfilled or the event could still happen. See 8.5 (p. 12) and 89.3 (p. 323) for the construction without wenn.
(b) about an event which can no longer take place, using the Subjunctive II in the past
with past reference (see also 39.2–3):Wenn du mich geliebt hättest, hättest du mich geheiratet.
Wenn du mich geliebt hättest, würdest du mich geheiratet haben.
If you had loved me you would have married me.Wenn er in der Stadt gewesen wäre, hätte er uns besucht.
Wenn er in der Stadt gewesen wäre, würde er uns besucht haben.
If he had been in town he would have visited us.Wäre er in der Stadt gewesen, so würde er uns besucht haben.The conditions under which a certain (desired) event could have taken place (i.e. a
wedding and a visit) were not fulfilled at the time and hence the event did not happen.The verb of the wenn clause needs to be in the past tense of the second subjunctive.
In the main clause there is a choice between either another second subjunctive in the
past tense (e.g. hätte gemacht, wäre gewesen), or würde with the past participle of
the main verb plus haben or sein.See^8 (p. 11) for word order in subordinate clauses.
89
PUTTING EVENTS INTO A WIDER CONTEXT