Protasis

Protasis

A protasis is a part of conditional sentence where it states a condition that must be met for a certain consequence or result to occur. The result of protasis is apodosis.

Example

If I study harder, I will pass the exam.

If I study harder is protasis and I will pass the exam is apodosis.

The if clause, which sets up the condition. This part of the sentence specifies the condition that must be met for the outcome to occur.

Reference

Crystal, D. (2008). Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). Oxford Blackwell.