How to join the inversion of the second conditionals and reasons

Question

I wrote following sentence as a combination of second conditionals and reasoning. In actual fact, what I need to tell is the main reason for the above sentence (not written) by a conditional statement. Actually, I'm not precisely sure about the following sentence. Therefore, I would be really grateful, if someone could provide me with a feedback on the following sentence in terms of the grammatical accuracy and the natural aspects.

The predominant reason for this is were the majority of citizens, for example, to live in apartments, it might lead to a significant reduction in people’s carbon footprint and the usage of lands.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

I see why you put is werein boldface. It's really awkward, isn't it?

The sentence is grammatical, but it needs help. You may be surprised to hear that I would remove the conditional. Here's how to do it:

The predominant reason for this is that housing the majority of citizens in apartments might lead to a significant reduction in their carbon footprint and in land use.
[ Adding the part about the usage of land seems odd. You might consider putting this extra point in another way in another sentence. ]

If you insist on keeping the conditional, however, you might try it without "is were" like this:

The predominant reason for this is that if the majority of citizens, for example, were to live in apartments, it might lead to a significant reduction in people’s carbon footprint and land use.

CJ

How to join the inversion of the second conditionals and reasons

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