![]() ![]() “What do you think the girls would have had to do when they arrived home.” What is the tense of the following verb/verbal phrase? Look under Correct Form and Use of Verbs. ![]() I’m glad to see that people are interested in getting these tenses right! I suggest a dinosaur of a grammar text: Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition Complete Course, available, I imagine, from used book suppliers. Why would you think of buying something for someone who wouldn’t like it? It’s unnecessary to say that. ![]() I’d leave out all the business about what might be, and stick to facts: “I would have bought this for you, but I knew you wouldn’t like it.” Even so, it’s a little odd. The third sentence, as a previous writer has mentioned, is ambiguous and needs pruning. It should read “If I travel to Sweden, it is only to meet you there.” This would read “Since I know you are sick, I won’t travel abroad.” The third is in the conditional future: “If I think (in the present) that you might (a possibility) become ill (in the future), I will not travel abroad (in the future).” This last would be better stated in a simpler construction, such as “I won’t go abroad if there is a possibility that you will get sick while I’m gone.” First, it may refer to actions all taken in the past, in which case it should read, “If I had known (in the past) that you would become sick (in the past), I would not have traveled abroad (in the past.) The second interpretation is in the simple present and future, based on fact. Sentence 1 has several possible interpretations. These are tricky concepts and hard to get straight. Reprinted with permission by Editor Laura Lawless. We wish the team would have scored more goals. We wish the team had scored more goals.ĤB. I wish it would have gone differently.ĤA. If you would have explained the objective, I could have completed the assignment sooner.ģA. If you had explained the objective, I could have completed the assignment sooner.ĢB. If I had known you were sick, I could have brought you some meals.ĢA. If I would have known you were sick, I could have brought you some meals.ġB. Incorrect: We wish they would have been honest.ġA. Incorrect: I wish you would have told me. The same mistake occurs with the verb “wish.” You can’t use the conditional perfect when wishing something had happened you again need the past perfect. Incorrect: If you would have asked me, I could have helped you. Incorrect: If I would have gotten paid, we could have traveled together.Ĭorrect: If you had asked me, I could have helped you.Ĭorrect: Had you asked me, I could have helped you. Incorrect: If I would have known that you were going to the movies, I would have gone too.Ĭorrect: If I had gotten paid, we could have traveled together.Ĭorrect: Had I gotten paid, we could have traveled together. The conditional perfect can only go in the “then” clause - it is grammatically incorrect to use the conditional perfect in the “if” clause: The correct way to say this is with the past perfect in the “if” clause, and the conditional perfect in the “then” clause:Ĭorrect: If I had known that you were going to the movies, I would have gone too. To express this, you can use an if-then clause. You would have liked to see it too, but you hadn’t known he was going. #Get it done grammar movieWhen talking about something that didn’t happen in the past, many English speakers use the conditional perfect (if I would have done) when they should be using the past perfect (if I had done).įor example, you find out that your brother saw a movie yesterday. ![]()
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