Colloquial correctness.
Sixty thousand students killed themselves last year. If this was a war this would have been one of the worst wars in terms of casualties.
Is the above usage of the pair 'was - would have been' correct? I came across native speakers using this pair while speaking. They said using 'had been - would have been' pair makes the sentence complicated and it's unnecessary for colloquial purposes'.
Top answer
"had been ... would have been" is correct. However, you might hear "was" used in everyday language, and most people probably would not notice it as a bad error, or even an error at all.
- "had been ...
- would have been" is correct.
- However, you might hear "was" used in everyday language, and most people probably would not notice it as a bad error, or even an error at all.
- I would avoid it in formal writing though.
- If anything, the thing I notice most is the slightly awkward "This ..
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"had been ... would have been" is correct. However, you might hear "was" used in everyday language, and most people probably would not notice it as a bad error, or even an error at all. I would avoid it in formal writing though.
If anything, the thing I notice most is the slightly awkward "This .. this ..." repetition. I would say "This ... it ....".
0desk navyIf this was a war this would have been one of the worst wars in terms of casualties.
You ask about "colloquial" correctness. Given that point of view, I'd say the sentence is passable. I don't think most native speakers would be very troubled by it if it flew by in the course of an interesting conversation.
CJ
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