When 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).
For example, you just found out the truth about somebody. Your friend asks why you didn’t share the information yesterday. You explain that you had not known the truth the last time you saw each other. To express this, you can use an if – then clause. The correct way to say this is with the past perfect in the if clause, and the conditional perfect in the then clause:
| correct | incorrect | |
| If I had known, [then] I would have told you. |
The conditional perfect can only go in the then clause – it is grammatically incorrect to use the conditional perfect in the if clause:
Here are some more examples:
| correct | incorrect | |
| If I had gotten paid, we could have traveled together. |
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| If you had asked me, I could have helped you. |
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The same mistake occurs with the verb wish. You can’t use the conditional perfect when wishing something had happened. Again, you need the past perfect.
| correct | incorrect | |
| We wish we had known. | ||
| Tom wishes you had stayed. | ||
| I wish they had been honest. |
Related Lessons
Is this mistake becoming more and more prevalent? Until a few years ago you would never have heard anybody say “If I would”, and now it seems as common as using “me and you” as the subject.
Yes, it seems like certain mistakes are so convincing, for lack of a better word, that other people hear them and make the same mistakes, so more people hear them and are convinced, and they just get more and more common. 🙁
Well, if native speakers use it, it not really a mistake, now is it? I’ve been hearing this construction a lot on the show ‘One tree hill’.
Being a native speaker does not mean no mistakes – if that were true, there’d be no need for editors and spell checkers. Lots of Americans say “I seen it” – the fact that English is their native language doesn’t mean that is an acceptable way to say “I saw it.”
when speaking of something that happened centuries ago, which is correct?
– they might as well have just done it
– they might as well had just done it
“they might as well have just done it” is correct.
Modal verbs are always followed by the base form of the verb, never the past tense.
thank you
i have a question, for example, can i say: if i had known that cookie was yours i wouldnt have eaten? is that correct , i mean the verb after would it has to be in past participle?
Yes, that’s correct – in this construction, you need the past participle: If I had known that cookie was yours, I wouldn’t have eaten it.
THIS drives me buggy. I hear it ALL the time.
is it possible to use this form in future tense? like: “if i would have done that next year, it would have been awful” or should it be “if i did that next year, it would be awful” ..or am i just talking nonsense here?
No, you can’t use it in the future (or at any other time, since “if I would have” is always wrong). You can say
“If I did that next year, it would be awful” – this makes it sound like you probably won’t do it.
or
“If I do that next year, it will be awful” – this sounds like you might do it.
Quick question. I’m wondering which one is correct or more common.
You would be a genius if you could(or can) use chopsticks at 3.
(is that ok if I use can in this sentence)
or should I say
You would’ve been a genius if you could use chopsticks at 3.
“You would’ve been a genius if you could use chopsticks at 3.”
How about
You would’ve been a genius if you could’ve used chopsticks at 3.
This probably be a wrong sentence. is it because I can’t use two negative sentence in one sentence. kinda confused..
That sentence is fine. I don’t know what you mean by “I can’t use two negative sentence in one sentence.” There are no negatives in your sentence.
Pls help me check this statement if it is correct and even if it is, I need a better way to say it. “You would have told me that you wouldn’t come to see me”. Now “told” is used which is the past tense of “tell”. If someone can say you would have told me. Then can someone also use come in its past tense? Like in “you would have came to see me”. Wow that sounds too awful. I can’t even make a statement like that. Y all these discrepancies in English language
After “would have,” you need the past participle.
Told is both the past participle and the past tense of tell.
Came is the past tense, but you need the past participle: come.
https://www.lawlessenglish.com/learn-english/grammar/verbs-irregular/
After 20 or 30 years it will be decided. But there must be rules.
‘Sometimes you would wish you never knew certain people’. What’s wrong with this sentence?
I don’t see anything wrong with it, given the right context.
I’m struggeling with a sentence: “If i had known, that i was running out of time, i would have studied more” i’m really insecure with the past continous tense.
For me (not native english speaker) it also would make sense to say:
“if i had known, that i will run out of time, i would have studied more”
or even “If i had known, that time is running out, i would have studied more”
“If I had known that I was running out of time, I would have studied more” is correct. But there’s no comma after “known” and the pronoun “I” always has to be capitalized.
“if i had known, that i will run out of time, i would have studied more”
No, you can’t use the future “will” in the past; it should be “If I had known that I would run out of time, I would have studied more.”
“If i had known, that time is running out, i would have studied more”
No, try this: “If I had known that time was running out, I would have studied more.”
Thanks a lot. But now there’s the question for me what is the difference in meaning.
The version with the “would” for me means that at the moment of speaking the time already ran out. The process of running out of time, stoped somwhere between the past and the present.
The version with the “was running” for me means that time at the moment of speaking still is running out. The process of running out of time is still going on.
“If I had known that I was running out of time, I would have studied more”
“If I had known that I would run out of time, I would have studied more.”
They mean basically the same thing: it’s too late, you’ve run out of time.
is this sentence correct or not ? If Greece and Greeks would had been converted to islam… would Greece had the problems of debt currently?
No, as the lesson explains, you cannot say “if … would have been” and you definitely can’t say “would had been.”
The correct sentence is “If Greece and Greeks had been converted to Islam, would Greece have the problems…
Is this sentence correct or not?
He said he would never had been able to face college credit classes without it.
No, it’s not.
He said he would never have been able to face college credit classes without it.