(conditional) inverted SHOULD + WOULD clause – English Grammar Profiler

In the English Grammar Profile, C2 point 120 in the category of CLAUSES/conditional is defined as:

inverted ‘should’, + ‘would’ in the main clause to talk about possible future outcomes, in polite or formal contexts.

Example:

Should they come forward, that would be a tricky situation for us.

Listen

In the COCA corpus we can do a collocate search for:

should _P

would

This is quite impossible to locate in the iWeb corpus due to the length and complexity.

We can start by searching for:

should _P _VVI

1 SHOULD I USE 16188

2 SHOULD YOU NEED 10666

A search on google for: “should you need” would

  Forbes Disability insurance, should you need it, would pay out a monthly benefit to ensure you maintained an income stream, even if you couldn’t earn a paycheck. *This example doesn’t quite match our criteria A further search two spaces to the right on iWeb: 1 SHOULD YOU NEED IT . 966 2 SHOULD YOU NEED TO . 330 3 SHOULD YOU NEED THEM . 273 4 SHOULD YOU NEED TO MAKE 260 5 SHOULD YOU NEED TO CANCEL 225 6 SHOULD YOU NEED IT , 218 7 SHOULD YOU NEED TO CONTACT 168 8 SHOULD YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE 131 9 SHOULD YOU NEED TO CHANGE 123 10 SHOULD YOU NEED TO DO 113 11 SHOULD YOU NEED ONE . 107 12 SHOULD YOU NEED TO USE 91 13 SHOULD YOU NEED TO GET 73 14 SHOULD YOU NEED ASSISTANCE . 60 15 SHOULD YOU NEED FURTHER ASSISTANCE 59 16 SHOULD YOU NEED TO RETURN 58 17 SHOULD YOU NEED TO TAKE 51 18 SHOULD YOU NEED TO REPLACE 51 19 SHOULD YOU NEED TO , 51

20 SHOULD YOU NEED ANY FURTHER 50

A search in COCA for ‘should you need’ + would has only 2 examples out of the 100s for ‘should you need’: Should you need a personal one-on-one free consultation, I would be glad to help. However, should you need one, I would be more than happy to be your physical therapist.

3 SHOULD YOU WISH 10043
4 SHOULD I SAY 8237

5 SHOULD I GO 7932

6 SHOULD I GET 7877 7 SHOULD YOU CHOOSE 7682 8 SHOULD I TAKE 7212 9 SHOULD I BUY 6127 10 SHOULD YOU USE 5946 11 SHOULD YOU DECIDE 4802 12 SHOULD I EXPECT 4366 13 SHOULD YOU WANT 4191 14 SHOULD I TRY 3957 15 SHOULD I WAIT 3496 16 SHOULD YOU GET 3411 17 SHOULD I START 3307 18 SHOULD YOU BUY 3297 19 SHOULD I LOOK 3260 20 SHOULD YOU REQUIRE 3251 21 SHOULD I PUT 3209 22 SHOULD I CHOOSE 2878 23 SHOULD YOU TAKE 2802 24 SHOULD YOU GO 2719 25 SHOULD YOU FIND 2571 26 SHOULD WE EXPECT 2558 27 SHOULD I KEEP 2419 28 SHOULD I GIVE 2263 29 SHOULD I MAKE 2262 30 SHOULD YOU CARE 2122 31 SHOULD I CONSIDER 2049 32 SHOULD I CONTACT 2008 33 SHOULD I CALL 1892 34 SHOULD I BRING 1881 35 SHOULD I ADD 1877 36 SHOULD I CARE 1856 37 SHOULD WE SAY 1843 38 SHOULD YOU CONSIDER 1811 39 SHOULD I KNOW 1788 40 SHOULD WE USE 1770 41 SHOULD I CHANGE 1730 42 SHOULD I ASK 1685 43 SHOULD I APPLY 1678 44 SHOULD WE GO 1664 45 SHOULD I WEAR 1620 46 SHOULD I PAY 1616 47 SHOULD YOU LOOK 1558 48 SHOULD I TELL 1544 49 SHOULD I LEAVE 1463 50 SHOULD YOU START 1385 51 SHOULD I CONTINUE 1345 52 SHOULD I SEND 1308 53 SHOULD I STOP 1305 54 SHOULD THEY WISH 1271 55 SHOULD WE TAKE 1253 56 SHOULD YOU FEEL 1184 57 SHOULD YOU EXPECT 1182 58 SHOULD I AVOID 1169 59 SHOULD WE CARE 1150 60 SHOULD I NEED 1134 61 SHOULD I SEE 1132 62 SHOULD I STAY 1123 63 SHOULD THEY CHOOSE 1115 64 SHOULD THEY NEED 1090 65 SHOULD YOU MAKE 1087 66 SHOULD WE MAKE 1060 67 SHOULD YOU TRY 1033 68 SHOULD I EAT 1030 69 SHOULD I INCLUDE 1029 70 SHOULD I LET 1029 71 SHOULD YOU BECOME 965 72 SHOULD WE GET 964 73 SHOULD I WORRY 948 74 SHOULD IT TAKE 938 75 SHOULD I RUN 917 76 SHOULD I WRITE 917 77 SHOULD I REPLACE 903 78 SHOULD YOU PAY 901 79 SHOULD I SET 870 80 SHOULD IT BECOME 867 81 SHOULD I SPEND 848 82 SHOULD I STICK 836 83 SHOULD YOU RUN 833 84 SHOULD THEY GET 827 85 SHOULD I REMOVE 800 86 SHOULD SOMETHING GO 775 87 SHOULD WE BELIEVE 760 88 SHOULD YOU EXPERIENCE 752 89 SHOULD SOMETHING HAPPEN 750 90 SHOULD YOU CHANGE 743 91 SHOULD YOU PUT 739 92 SHOULD I PURCHASE 734 93 SHOULD YOU FAIL 727 94 SHOULD THEY GO 721 95 SHOULD YOU PREFER 721 96 SHOULD YOU DESIRE 720 97 SHOULD I CUT 719 98 SHOULD YOU ENCOUNTER 716 99 SHOULD I MOVE 711

100 SHOULD WE TRY 711

Should I visit Brazil, I would go with my friends.

*Note there were only 3 examples of this structure in the whole PELIC corpus, all of which were in grammar classes.