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Anankastic conditional

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Neiladri (talk | contribs) at 07:25, 19 November 2013 ("got to" -> "gotta" in example, fitting the way "Wannabe" lyrics are rendered on other wiki pages). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

An anankastic[1] conditional is a grammatical construction of the form

If you want X, you have to do Y.

where Y is required in order to get X. For example:

If you wanna be my lover, you have gotta get with my friends.

Notes

  1. ^ From Greek ἀναγκαστικός "compulsory" from ἀνάγκη "necessity."