>>The mixture of 1 and 2 conditionals sounds decidedly dodgy to me.
Not if we put it in context :
If (as you say and I take it for granted ) she didn't take extra driving lessons, she will fail her driving test. It's not trully counterfactual.
>>It would be better if you
give me some examples'
Although such constructions can be found in narrative, they're rare in conversation. I mean the present protasis and the 'would' apodosis. They require specific context, which is difficult to extract.
It's because the 'would' in the main clause is 'still' interpreted as a prediction (yes, tentative but still a prediction) and the problem here lies in the fact that it's a bit odd to predict something from a past domain.
Technically (and theoretically), with the protasis in the present almost all tense combinations are possible, given that we have a semantically appropriate context. This is not what the asker's original questions were about, I guess.
edytowany przez savagerhino: 09 cze 2013