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  1. You could roast a chicken whole or in pieces as you choose.

  2. You could roast a chicken whole or in pieces as you chose.

Is sentence (2) correct and mean the same thing as (1)? Here "chose" does not refer to past time, and is used to have the same hypothetical tense throughout the sentence.

Mr. X
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    They're both correct, but chose is simply the past tense of choose, as it always is. I'm not sure why you think it wouldn't refer to the past tense. – stangdon Jun 11 '21 at 20:34
  • Do (1) and (2) mean the same? – Mr. X Jun 11 '21 at 20:44
  • What do you think Mr. X, and what prompts the question? – Ronald Sole Jun 11 '21 at 20:59
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    I think these are a zero conditional and a type two conditional, just with "as" in place of "if". Mr. X is correct that in a type two conditional, the syntactic past tense does not mean past time. – aschepler Jun 11 '21 at 21:41
  • I meant backshifting:https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/70008/what-is-the-rule-of-tense-backshifting-in-a-subordinate-clause-following-a-past – Mr. X Jun 11 '21 at 22:04

1 Answers1

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In other contexts, you could use the past participle of a verb in a hypothetical statement, but not in your example as it is phrased.

For example, you could say:

You could eat the piece of fruit you chose earlier.

Here you are saying you could do something in the future, but it relies on something you already did in the past - you chose a piece of fruit in the past, but the hypothetical eating of it is in the future.

That is not the case with your example. The hypothetical roasting of a chicken can be done two different ways - you can roast it whole, or in pieces. As either option is a hypothetical action in the future, your choice of method is also in the future, so the past participle is not appropriate.

Astralbee
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  • I meant backshifting:https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/70008/what-is-the-rule-of-tense-backshifting-in-a-subordinate-clause-following-a-past – Mr. X Jun 11 '21 at 22:05
  • (If you chose), you could roast a chicken whole or in pieces as you chose. – Mr. X Jun 12 '21 at 05:29
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    @Mr.X Sorry, I don't understand the comment, but your example still sounds incorrect. If something has already happened, it is no longer a hypothetical. – Astralbee Jun 13 '21 at 09:41
  • I'm not sure but maybe it's because of the verb "choose". What about this: (If you wanted to), you could roast a chicken whole or in pieces as you wanted. Does wanted refer to past wanting? – Mr. X Jun 13 '21 at 10:33
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    @Mr.X No - 'wanted' can be used for a continuous desires that perhaps began in the past but continues on into the present. It is quite common to say "we could go if you wanted?", although 'want' would be correct, too. – Astralbee Jun 14 '21 at 07:48
  • I think I'm still not clear. Please consider the "lion" sentence given in the link above. It says: Yes, but the lion would* know I was just being deceitful*. Do you see how it uses "was" instead of "is"? I think the "was" there does not refer to actual/real past time, but rather hypothetical/imaginary time, the same time implied by "would" in the same sentence. My question is: Can we do the same with the OP sentence, ie use "chose" instead of "choose" because the sentence also uses "could", which is hypothetical in nature? – Mr. X Jun 14 '21 at 15:34
  • @Mr.X With respect, that already has an accepted answer. – Astralbee Jun 14 '21 at 17:24
  • Yes, and the answer says "was" is correct with "would". But my question is: Is "chose" correct with "could", in the hypothetical sense? – Mr. X Jun 14 '21 at 17:31
  • @Mr.X I've given you an example where it is, so yes. – Astralbee Jun 14 '21 at 17:41
  • OK. Thanks..... – Mr. X Jun 14 '21 at 17:54