Counterfactual

A counterfactual is when you imagine an alternate version of something that actually happened. It's like pretending that things happened differently than they actually did.

For example, let's say you go to the zoo and see a lion with your own eyes. A counterfactual could be something like, "What if I had gone to the aquarium instead of the zoo? I wouldn't have seen the lion and instead would have seen dolphins."

Counterfactuals can be used to think about what might have happened in different situations. They're useful for exploring ideas and testing hypotheses about what could have happened if things had been different. For example, if a scientist is studying the impact of a certain medicine, they might compare what happened when people took the medicine (the actual situation) to what might have happened if they hadn't taken the medicine (a counterfactual scenario).

So, a counterfactual is like a make-believe version of what happened that you can use to think about different possibilities.