He talks as though he had been there --> in fact?

Hi,

in this hypothetical condion, He talks as though he had been there, does it mean that in fact he wasn't there , or that in fact he has been there ?

Your two tenses don't match well. Here are two ways to say this..



He talks as though he has been there.



He talked as though he had been there.

BamtoriTeachers, in this hypothetical condition, He talks as though he had been there, does it mean that in fact he wasn't there , or that in fact he has been there ? Also I'm doubting that perfect tenses can be changed into the hypothetical condition.
I would appreciate any help! thanks.

The part of the sentence that makes it hypothetical is the conjunct

"He talks as though he had been there" is perfectly grammatically correct and IMPLIES that he was not, in fact, there.

"He TALKS" - present tense, he is speaking now
"as though" - indicates that what comes next is probably counterfactual (i. e. what comes next is the opposite of the real fact)
"he had been" - talking about something in the past, but counterfactual, so this tense

Thanks teachers~

The entire pharagraph from the grammar text was this:

A: Did he go to Hawaii this summer?

B: No, he didn't.

A: But he talks as though he had been there.

Oh, also about the change of the perfect tense sentence into a hypothetical condition, I heard this one on a television show and couldn't make out if it was " If I have" or " I had" :

A: Could you just tell me if you've come up with something?



B: If I have (or had ?), I wouldn't share it with you.

Thanks teachers, I really appreciate all your explanations! (_

Well, this bit of dialogue does have some grammatical issues, "had" fits better. The word "you've" (specifically "have") is not precisely correct, but I'd need more context to figure out what is correct. During the TV show the context was probably very clear and the correct message was communicated, which is really the important part.

Note: "If I have" would be correct if character B was actively working on something (e. g. a math problem on paper), leading up to and during the conversation. "Had" means that if he had come up with something, he would have finished coming up with it in the past, before this conversation.

WBTtheFROG"He talks as though he had been there" is perfectly grammatically correct and IMPLIES that he was not, in fact, there."He TALKS" - present tense, he is speaking now"as though" - indicates that what comes next is probably counterfactual (i. e. what comes next is the opposite of the real fact)"he had been" - talking about something in the past, but c

Thanks for your agreement- please vote it up!