Of course, had we used the more normal if-clause to express this conditional idea, the contracted negative form would have been the norm: If only it hadn't rained last Saturday, we would've had a ...

Pat King, a key organizer of the 2022 convoy protest in downtown Ottawa, got a three-month conditional sentence on Wednesday after the judge accounted for time already served in jail. In November ...

Conditional sentences express a connection between two actions or states. One thing happens because of another. These connections can be general, specific, likely, unlikely, real or imagined.