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DorisPao Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
A question about the past perfect
Hello,
I know that the past perfect only deals with counterfactual situations in the past. But how do I deal with the following situation:
I get home at 4 p.m. and find that my husband did not turn off the faucet in the kitchen. He comes home and 6 p.m. and I tell him: What if I had shown up not at 4 p.m. but at midnight? The kitchen would have been flooded!
Is the past perfect correct in this example? It doesn't look right, because I am talking about the future (at 6 p.m. midnight is still six hours away). Should I be using the second conditional (What if I showed up at midnight? The kitchen would be flooded!).
Please confirm!
Thank you,
Doris
I know that the past perfect only deals with counterfactual situations in the past. But how do I deal with the following situation:
I get home at 4 p.m. and find that my husband did not turn off the faucet in the kitchen. He comes home and 6 p.m. and I tell him: What if I had shown up not at 4 p.m. but at midnight? The kitchen would have been flooded!
Is the past perfect correct in this example? It doesn't look right, because I am talking about the future (at 6 p.m. midnight is still six hours away). Should I be using the second conditional (What if I showed up at midnight? The kitchen would be flooded!).
Please confirm!
Thank you,
Doris
Top answer
m. but at midnight? The kitchen would have been flooded!
- m.
- but at midnight?
- The kitchen would have been flooded!
- This one is correct in respect of the tenses.
- "got home" seems to fit the situation better than "shown up".
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7 Answers
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DorisPaoWhat if I had shown up not at 4 p.m. but at midnight? The kitchen would have been flooded!This one is correct in respect of the tenses.
"got home" seems to fit the situation better than "shown up". Also, the logic of the statement seems slightly flawed to me. Wouldn't your husband have found the running faucet first, at 6 p.m?
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DorisPaoIs the past perfect correct in this example?Yes. You are dealing with impossible past: you showed up at 4 pm, which invalidates any other time, I suppose. You cannot not have shown up then.
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Thank you both - really? I was taught that in a case like this, the past perfect is incorrect because I am referring to a future event (midnight, which is still 6 hours away)!!!
(GPY, let's say my husband never showed up - I am talking to him on the phone)
(GPY, let's say my husband never showed up - I am talking to him on the phone)
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Guys, what if I omit the reference to 4 p.m. and tell my husband over the phone (at 6 p.m.):
What if I had shown up at midnight?
Would that be still correct? Or do I say, What if I showed up at midnight?
What if I had shown up at midnight?
Would that be still correct? Or do I say, What if I showed up at midnight?
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DorisPaoGuys, what if I omit the reference to 4 p.m. and tell my husband over the phone (at 6 p.m.):What if I had shown up at midnight?Would that be still correct?Yes.
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DorisPaoGuys, what if I omit the reference to 4 p.m. and tell my husband over the phone (at 6 p.m.):What if I had shown up at midnight?Would that be still correct?Yes, it would be. As the other two users have said before me, it is correct to use the past perfect here. Your confusion, it seems to me, stems from the fact that you think you are referring to a fu
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I think Xerxes is right: the counterfactual event is perceived to have not happened at the time when the outcome was decided, i.e. 4 pm. A counterfactual "if" event can't truly belong to the future, because in that case the outcome would not yet have been decided.
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