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The two tenses of the irrealis
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The present tense is used in conditional clauses for hypothetical situations which are possible and not improbable. The simple past tense is used in conditional clauses for hypothetical situations which are possible but improbable. (see simple present and simple past). The perfect tense is used for the expression of counterfactuals. Frisian appears to have two ways of morphologically expressing the semantics of the tenses of the irrealis: by means of the past tense or by means of the modal auxiliary sille shall (see present perfect and past perfect). These two ways may be combined in the bi-clausal conditional construction. Corpus research is necessary to check and refine the claims made here.

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More details about the two tenses of the irrealis can be found by following the corresponding links:

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