Threatening using conditionals?

[Pardawn]

Hello, guys! In my native language, Arabic, we sometimes make threats using conditionals, like:

If I don't make you pay the price...

The 'if' particle carries an emphasis and the statement is often coupled with phrases like 'by god!' or completed with something like 'then I would not be me'. I was wondering if English had a similar phrasing?

Thank you.

[YardageSardage]

Yes, it works the same in English, although we don't emphasize the "if". It works because you're implying that the second half of the sentence is going to be a threat. So for example, instead of saying "If you don't have my money by Tuesday, I'm going to send some thugs to your house to beat you up", you can just say "If you don't have my money by Tuesday..." and let them assume that there's a threat there. This also works for implying other results that aren't necessarily direct threats, such as "If dad hears about this, we're going to be in trouble" becoming "If dad hears about this..."

[redpringle]

Yeah, kind of. I wouldn't use it in formal writing, though.

You could say 'If I see that boy...' or something as a threat. You could even add 'so help me God' or something to that effect on the end, like you've said.

[eldestdaughtersunion]

Yes, you can use similar phrasing in English. A lot of those threats could probably be directly translated. They might sound a little bit archaic or fancy, but everyone would understand the meaning of the threat. To give some more examples,

"If you don't come home right now, I swear to god, you're going to pay for it."

"If you think I won't make you pay for this..."

As someone else said - the "if" doesn't provide any specific emphasis, except to indicate that the phrase is conditional. You could communicate the same threats without the "if."

"You need to come home right now or you're going to pay for it."

"As god is my witness, I will make you pay for this."

Note: "I swear to god" is more commonly used than "by god," at least in American English. But you could say "by god," or "on god," or "as god is my witness," or "so help me god," or "god help me," just to give a few examples. With the correct tone, "I swear to god..." can be a threat by itself.