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I have a question about mixed conditionals.

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I have a question about mixed conditionals.

by kspark » Tue Nov 01, 2016 7:23 pm
Hi~

The original sentence is like this.
-->Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't be what I am.

Can I change this sentence like this?
1. Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't have been what I was.
2. Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't have been what I am.

I think NO.1 sentence is correct.
Is it possibe to write sentence No.2? what I am?
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by MartyMurray » Thu Nov 03, 2016 6:01 am
kspark wrote:Hi~

The original sentence is like this.
-->Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't be what I am.

Can I change this sentence like this?
1. Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't have been what I was.
2. Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't have been what I am.

I think NO.1 sentence is correct.
Is it possibe to write sentence No.2? what I am?
Sentence 1 basically makes sense, though somehow the use of "then" may not make sense. The contrast between "then" and now in the original sentence makes sense, but in Sentence 1 there does not seem to be any contrast between "then" and the time when "I was." So why use "then"? Maybe using "then" makes sense somehow, but the validity of using it is debatable.

Sentence 2 does not make sense. "have been" and "I am" do not work well together. "have been" is a past tense construction, while "I am" describes something occurring in the present. So essentially Sentence 2 uses two different tenses in describing the same thing.

This makes sense.

Had it not been for my friends then, I wouldn't have become what I am.
Marty Murray
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