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    Sentence/ explanation

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    Sentence/ explanation
    Message from suhasini posted on 29-12-2016 at 16:44:46 (D | E | F)
    Hello,
    Could you explain this sentence,please?
    Thanks in advance for any help.

    "Had it not been for his friend,he wouldn't have got a job."
    I could understand that he wouldn't have got a job but in spite of my tries,I couldn't understand that 'had it not been for his friend'.

    -------------------
    Edited by lucile83 on 29-12-2016 21:32


    Re: Sentence/ explanation from lucile83, posted on 29-12-2016 at 21:51:00 (D | E)
    Hello,
    Here are 2 links:
    Link

    Conditionals with inversions
    In conditional sentences we can sometimes replace the 'if' with an inversion:
    Had I known it would be so difficult I would never have enrolled.


    Link

    2:We can use inversion instead of 'if' in conditionals with 'had' 'were' and 'should'. This is quite formal:
    Normal conditional: If I had been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
    Conditional with inversion: Had I been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
    Normal conditional: If we had arrived sooner, we could have prevented this tragedy!
    Conditional with inversion: Had we arrived sooner, we could have prevented this tragedy!




    Re: Sentence/ explanation from suhasini, posted on 30-12-2016 at 05:02:03 (D | E)
    Hello Lucile,
    Thank you so much,
    Did you not tell Had you not told me,I wouldn't understand have understood that sentence, but inversion is difficult to speak use and study.

    -------------------
    Edited by lucile83 on 30-12-2016 07:15



    Re: Sentence/ explanation from suhasini, posted on 30-12-2016 at 11:23:26 (D | E)
    Hello Lucile,
    Oh! I did mistake,I just tried that why do I not use past simple instead of past perfect tense.
    What about this sentence?
    Not until you told me about my mistake did I really belive
    It was wrong.




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    Forum > English only