Counterfactuals, concessives and hypotheticals are three semantically related but different constructions. Hypotheticals, also known as conditionals, typically involve an adverbial clause, often referred to as the antecedent or protasis clause and a consequent or apodosis main clause. In some cases, a verb complement is used to express a hypothetical world, as the complement of the verb xīwàng 希望 ‘wish’. This article focuses on the former type. The antecedent clause of a Chinese hypothetical is typically marked by a discontinuous constituent rúguǒ … de huà 如果 … 的話 ‘if’ or yàoshì … de …