Conditionals: woulda, coulda, shoulda = would have, could have, should have

 https://www.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/clarifying-the-conditional-tense/

C. The Type 2 Conditional expresses a situation that was not real or not happening (a theoretical condition) and its probable result. The “if” clause includes the simple past tense, and the main clause is in the present conditional or present continuous conditional.

Examples:
If you got [simple past] more sleep, you would feel [present conditional] more alert in the morning.
If I had [simple past] better brakes, I would not be hearing [present continuous conditional] a grinding sound every time I slow or stop the car.

Listen to the words from the song, If I were a Rich Man. Formal writing doesn't use contractions, so you'll have to change all of the uses of "I'd" to "I would."  



https://genius.com/Topol-if-i-were-a-rich-man-lyrics 
... I'd build a big tall house with rooms by the dozen,
right in the middle of the town.
[It would have] a fine tin roof with real wooden floors below.
There would be one long staircase just going up,
and one even longer coming down,
and one more leading nowhere, just for show.
I've changed the capitalization and other punctuation from its original poetry format to something more like prose. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbJEpcteKg4 During a 1971 interview, Dick Cavett invited Zero Mostel to sing his keynote song (with subtitles) from "Fiddler on the Roof": https://youtu.be/m4L_McguEL8?t=1343

2 comments:

  1. Can you locate at which point Tevya gets so carried away with his plans that he starts singing in the indicative mood using simple future tense? After that, at which point does he return to being wistful so comes back to earth, using the conditional mood?

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  2. Same idea , same film excerpt, but more examples. You can use CC and auto-translate to see sub-titles.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H3-2smRJJY

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