Subjunctive
Hello, everyone,
1. “I sometimes wonder what sort of life I would be living, if I had known then what I know now.”
2. “I sometimes wonder what sort of life I would be living, if I knew then what I know now.”
While I think no.1 conditional sentence for the unreal past situation is grammatically correct due to ‘then’, do the some natives also use no. 2 in a informal style?
Your valuable comments would be much appreciated.
Top answer
Most native speakers cannot correctly form patterns of the type "if I had known". You will hear all kinds of mangled attempts, such as "if I knew", "if I would have known", "if I had have known".
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Most native speakers cannot correctly form patterns of the type "if I had known". You will hear all kinds of mangled attempts, such as "if I knew", "if I would have known", "if I had have known".
0deepcosmosWhile I think no.1 conditional sentence for the unreal past situation is grammatically correct due to ‘then’, do the some natives also use no. 2 in a informal style?
Yes, definitely, especially when the verb is stative (be, know, etc.).
Native speakers say all sort of things that aren't recommended in grammar books.
Here's an ex
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