Learn English – Should I write “If…, I would” or “If…, I will”

sentence-structuretense

If there's a situation where I can speak either English or Arabic, I would choose English.

I know that I can break this sentence down to smaller and simpler sentences like "In some situations, I have the choice to speak English or Arabic. And I prefer speaking English" but I would like to use this long sentence that contains the conditional IF and the word either.

I think the rules are: "If(present), (future, will)" or "If (past), (would)". Now, I used present tense and then I feel it's better to use (would) instead of (will) but I don't know why?

Best Answer

What's correct is going to depend on the context. Here are some possibilities:

Hypothetical (it hasn't happened, but it might happen in the future)

  • If there were a situation where I could speak English or Arabic, I would choose English.

Habitual past (it has actually happened often in the past)

  • If there was a situation where I could speak English or Arabic, I chose English.

Habitual present (it actually happens often at present)

  • If there is a situation where I can speak either English or Arabic, I choose English.

Hypothetical future (it might happen in the future; a bit more likely than Hypothetical above)

  • If there should be a situation where I can speak either English or Arabic, I will choose English.

or

  • Should there be a situation where I can speak either English or Arabic, I will choose English.
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