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Vera_rtn Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

But M, had he the will to help, would …

#1 But Mark, had he the will to help, would have spent lots of time on optimizing the color palette.

#2 But Mark, want he to help, would have spent lots of time on optimizing the color palette.

I'm worried about the piece between ",".

Which is rigth: 1 or 2? Or they both have mistakes?

Of course I can use conventional "if he wanted to help", but I don't want to.

Thanks for your help!
  

Top answer

#1 is fine, but it is somewhat formal and a little old-fashioned. #2 is not correct.

— AlpheccaStars

  • #1 is fine, but it is somewhat formal and a little old-fashioned.
  • #2 is not correct.
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4 Answers
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#1 is fine, but it is somewhat formal and a little old-fashioned.

#2 is not correct.
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thanks for the fast reply!

the sentence is for somewhat comic effect, so "old-fashioned" doesn't scare me Emotion: smile
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vera_rtn#1 But Mark, had he the will to help, would have spent lots of time on optimizing the color palette.
OK, but the tense sequence is not the usual one. You can change it to something more standard in two ways, depending on what you want to say.

But Mark, had he the will to help, would spend lots of time ...

(Imagined situatio
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CJ is right! I missed the second "had" which is needed for the past perfect construction.
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