What do these sentences mean to you?

[harry1999]

1.If you knew, you should have told me.
2.If you knew, why didn’t you tell me?.
But as the “if conditional” rule says,
If + Subject + Past participle of verb+rest of the sentence in future tense.
e.g.
3.If he came, We would got to party—But the his of coming is very less or not.
4.If he comes, we will go to party—(Here the waiting person is guranteed about him i.e. he will definitely come)
But how would you write the sentence using If which will indicate the past happened activity.
I mean, the above sentences No 1 & 2. The user already knew the things but he didi’t tell those.but if you compare it with sentences 3 & 4.
Can you tell me the correct sentence using “If”. As this sentence does not include in if conditionals.
If you came, we would go to party.
we don’t think he’s coming, less likely or not is the probability.
I just want to ask
If you knew (The sentence I can write without conditionals, “I know that, he or she knew” but He or She didn’t tell me), why didn’t you tell me?
He or She knew but, didn’t tell me.
OR
If you knew (same as written in above bracket), You should have told me.
He or She knew but, didn’t tell me.
so, i would like to come to know that the word “KNEW” indicates same as “CAME” ? OR Is it not included in the rule of conditionals?

 

[panjandrum]

Hello harry1999 - welcome to WordReference

Sentences 1 and 2 are not conditional sentences as I understand them. I'll try to explain why.

Both sentences would be used in a context where I have just found out that you knew <something>.
A direct response to this discovery would be.
1a. You should have told me.
2a. Why didn't you tell me?

The "if" clause is allowing for the possibility that you might not have known (even though I know that you did). It is perhaps a more gentle way to make the point - still allowing (in theory) for the possibility that you would not have been so careless as not to tell me.

(Experts on conditional statements will no doubt put us right.)

 

[panjandrum]

The puzzling thing is the difference between sentence pairs with know/come.

First, knew/came.

If you knew about Bill you should have told me.
Definitely speaking about the past.
I believe that you knew about Bill.

If you knew about Bill you would have told me.
Definitely speaking about the past.
I don't believe you knew about Bill.

If you knew about Bill you would tell me.
Speaking about the present.
I don't believe that you know about Bill.

If you came to London we would go to the party.
Definitely speaking about the future.
I don't believe that you are coming to London.


What about the present tense - know/come?

If you know about Bill you should tell me.
I think it's possible you know about Bill.

If you come to London we will go to the party.
I think it's possible you will come to London.

 

[harry1999]

@panjandrum: It's really helpful. Thank you very much indeed.

 

[Thomas Tompion]

Hello harry1999 - welcome to WordReference

Sentences 1 and 2 are not conditional sentences as I understand them. I'll try to explain why.

Both sentences would be used in a context where I have just found out that you knew <something>.
A direct response to this discovery would be.
1a. You should have told me.
2a. Why didn't you tell me?

The "if" clause is allowing for the possibility that you might not have known (even though I know that you did). It is perhaps a more gentle way to make the point - still allowing (in theory) for the possibility that you would not have been so careless as not to tell me.

I think this is saying that if can mean granted that, and that where it means this, we don't have a true conditional sentence. I'd agree with this proposition.

If you knew about Bill, you should have told me means Granted that you knew about Bill, you should have told me.

The failure of the second part of the sentence to follow a sequence of tenses proper to a conditional sentence alerts us to the fact that I'm confident that you knew about Bill.

A conditional sentence might have run If you knew about Bill, you would tell me.

The case is complicated because of the intricacies of tense formation with ought's and should have's.