31.229 Contrary to Fact Conditions

Contrary to fact conditions can be expressed with regard to the past and to the present. An example of a past contrary to fact condition in English would be: "If I had not overslept, I would not have missed my plane" (contrary to fact: I did oversleep, so I did miss my plane!). An example of a present contrary to fact condition in English would be: "If I were a lucky person, I would go to Las Vegas every week and gamble" (contrary to fact: I am not a lucky person, so I do not go to Vegas and gamble!).

A conditional statement actually contains two parts: the "if" clause (called the "protasis") and the "then" clause (called the "apodosis").

If the "if" clause expresses a contrary to fact condition, in Greek you use the imperfect past tense to express a present contrary to fact situation, and the aorist past tense to express a past contrary to fact situation. This should not surprise you: the imperfect past tense is built using the present stem of the verb! What is very interesting about the "if" clause in a contrary to fact condition is that, even though it uses an indicative verb, you negate the statement with μή rather than with οὐ.

The "then" clause works more or less the same way. You use the imperfect past tense to express a present contrary to fact situation, and the aorist past tense to express a past contrary to fact situation. However, when you negate the statement in the "then" clause, you go ahead and use οὐ, just as you would expect to do with an indicative verb.

Note that since the verb "to be" does not have an aorist tense in Greek, you use the imperfect past tense for both present and past contrary to fact conditions.