||This article includes a list of references, related reading or
external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks
inline citations. (December 2011)| A counterfactual conditional,
subjunctive conditional, or remote conditional, abbreviated CF,
is a conditional (or "if-then") statement indicating what would
be the case if its antecedent were true (although it is not
true). This is to be contrasted with an indicative conditional,
which indicates what is (in fact) the case if its antecedent is
(in fact) true (which it may or may not be). The difference
between indicative and counterfactual conditionals, in a context
of past time reference, can be illustrated with a pair of
examples in which the if clause is in the past indicative in the
first example but in the pluperfect subjunctive in the second: -
If Oswald did not shoot Kennedy, then someone else did. - If
Oswald had not shot Kennedy, then someone else would have. The
protasis (the if clause) of the first sentence may or may not be
true accordi