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what might have occurred, but did not.

A counterfactual conditional or subjunctive conditional is a conditional ( or " if-then ") statement indicating what would be the case if events had been other than they actually are.

For example, " If Alexander had lived, his empire would have been greater than Rome ".

This is to be contrasted with an indicative conditional, which indicates what is ( in fact ) the case if its antecedent is ( in fact ) true — for example, " if you drink this, it will make you well ".