(conditional) inverted SHOULD + WOULD clause

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

• We would double your fee should you escort the merchandise to its final destination.
•  I would be pleased should you find yourself at liberty to attend.

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.

2 July 2020

*This example doesn’t quite match our criteria

A further search two spaces to the right on iWeb:

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

PELIC student in a grammar focus class:

Arabic,Male,5,g

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.