Any who had seen
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The sentence below is presented as a single sentence for an exercise in a grammar book.
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It was such a sorrowful sight that anyone who had seen it will cry.
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Is that grammatically wrong?
If so, “will” should be changed to “would cry”, or “woud have cried”?
As a non-native, I feel that “will cry”, “would cry” and “woud have cried” are all correct.
And also, without much context, I feel that “had seen” should be “saw”.
I would like to be enlightened here....
Top answer
It was such a sorrowful sight (past tense) that anyone who had seen it (past perfect tense) would have cried (my preference). would cry (future perfect – inappropriate) will cry (future tense – inappropriate) if ‘had seen’ is changed to ‘saw’ (simple past): It was such a sorrowful sight that ‘if’ anyone ‘saw’ it he ‘would cry’.
- It was such a sorrowful sight (past tense) that anyone who had seen it (past perfect tense) would have cried (my preference).
- would cry (future perfect – inappropriate) will cry (future tense – inappropriate) if ‘had seen’ is changed to ‘saw’ (simple past): It was such a sorrowful sight that ‘if’ anyone ‘saw’ it he ‘would cry’.
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It was such a sorrowful sight (past tense)
that anyone who had seen it (past perfect tense)
would have cried (my preference).
would cry (future perfect – inappropriate)
will cry (future tense – inappropriate)
if ‘had seen’ is changed to ‘saw’ (simple past):
It was such a sorrowful sight that ‘if’ anyone ‘saw’ it he ‘would cry’.
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