Breakdown of Se o criador tivesse apagado o código, a inteligência artificial não seria cada vez mais hostil agora.
ser
to be
não
not / no
ter
to have
agora
now
mais
more
o
him/it (m)
a vez
the time (occasion)
se
if
cada
each
apagar
to switch off, to erase
o código
the code
o criador
the creator
a inteligência artificial
the artificial intelligence
hostil
hostile
cada vez mais
more and more (cada vez menos = less and less)
Questions & Answers about Se o criador tivesse apagado o código, a inteligência artificial não seria cada vez mais hostil agora.
Why does this sentence mix the past perfect subjunctive in the first half with the conditional in the second half?
This is a mixed conditional. The first half, se o criador tivesse apagado, describes an unreal condition in the past (the creator did not delete the code). The second half, não seria, describes the hypothetical result happening right now in the present, which is why the conditional is used instead of a past tense. The word agora perfectly highlights this present consequence.
The lesson says we can also use the imperfect tense for the result clause. How would that look here?
You could replace the conditional seria with the imperfect era, making it: ...a inteligência artificial não era cada vez mais hostil agora. In spoken Portuguese (Portugal), substituting the imperfect for the conditional is extremely common and sounds very natural, even in mixed conditionals.
Could I use a single adverb like crescentemente instead of cada vez mais for 'increasingly'?
While a literal translation like crescentemente exists, it sounds highly formal or academic. The fixed expression cada vez mais (literally 'each time more') is the standard, most natural way to say 'increasingly' or 'more and more' in everyday Portuguese. It is placed right before the adjective, just like in English.
What if the consequence was also in the past, meaning it 'would not have been hostile' back then?
If both the condition and the result were in the past (a standard Type 3 conditional), you would use the conditional perfect for the result clause. You would change não seria to não teria sido (would not have been). But since the sentence specifies the hostility is happening agora, we must mix the tenses.
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