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SpoonfedBaby Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Contrary-to-Fact Conditional

I read in my English grammar book:
I would have been (past conditional) happy if he had come (past perfect).


I read in a novel a sentence structure that I never encountered but it is similar to the contrary-to-fact structure:
James wondered absently how different his life might have been had he found his way to such a place when his mother had died, rather than ending up in the …


Is it equivalent to the following?
James wondered absently how different his life might have been if he had found his way to such a place when his mother had died, rather than ending up in the …


I would say "might have been" is the past conditional and "had found" the past perfect.
  

Top answer

You have come across an alternate way of structuring an "if" clause - a way in which the "if" is missing! The sense of the "if" is carried by the inversion of word order. "were" and "had" are the words which are moved to the front in these constructions.

— CalifJim

  • You have come across an alternate way of structuring an "if" clause - a way in which the "if" is missing!
  • The sense of the "if" is carried by the inversion of word order.
  • "were" and "had" are the words which are moved to the front in these constructions.
  • The "were" or "had" then substitutes for "if".
  • Examples: If I were president, I would ...
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1 Answers
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You have come across an alternate way of structuring an "if" clause - a way in which the "if" is missing! The sense of the "if" is carried by the inversion of word order. "were" and "had" are the words which are moved to the front in these constructions. The "were" or "had" then substitutes for "if".

Examples:

If I were president, I would ... = Were I president, I would ..
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