some phrases on phrasing
so i am talking about inflation in the 1970s
and the policy response to inflation
and how policy sometimes creates a recession
and i get to the point where i say
if policy creates a recession
then the resulting unemployment is due to policy
but i go back and change
"if policy creates a recession" to
"when policy creates a recession"
because the words are stronger
by logic i should say
"if this, then that"
but now i have when and then
we did get recessions in the 70s
so 'when' is not wrong, but
IF this THEN that is BASIC
it bothers me a little
evidently, for i am writing
but i'm sticking with when and then
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2 comments:
I think that you could omit then with no loss of meaning. When it rains, it pours. When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen.
I agree: Omit the "then", especially if I'm using "when" in place of "if". But I sure don't know how you can come up with multiple examples on the spur of the moment like that. Impressive mental feat.
This is a pretty common error for me: I revise one part of a sentence (if -> when) and neglect to look for consequences elsewhere in that sentence (omit 'then') and beyond.
With "if" I always use "then" and if I remove "then" it is always an afterthought. That should tell you I learned some of my writing by writing computer code.
Thanks for keeping an eye on me.
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