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Mai Thành Đạt Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

If I would have + V3 ??

Hello. I have a question.
In Justin Bieber's song Been You there is a line like this

If I would have known it could have been you

What does it mean exactly ???

I thought there are only 3 kinds of conditional sentences (If + present, if + past, If + past perfect) ???
  

Top answer

There are many kinds of conditional sentences. 'If I would have known' is not correct in any of them in standard BrE, though you will often hear 'If I'd've known' in informal conversation. Many British speakers conider the 'd to be a contraction of had .

— Fivejedjon

  • There are many kinds of conditional sentences.
  • 'If I would have known' is not correct in any of them in standard BrE, though you will often hear 'If I'd've known' in informal conversation.
  • Many British speakers conider the 'd to be a contraction of had .
  • This would mean that the full form would be If I had have known, a tense-form not accepted by most grammarians.
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18 Answers
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There are many kinds of conditional sentences.

'If I would have known' is not correct in any of them in standard BrE, though you will often hear 'If I'd've known' in informal conversation. Many British speakers conider the 'd to be a contraction of had. This would mean that the full form would be If I had have known, a tense-form not accepted by most grammarians.
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It's bad English.

(Cross-posted)
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fivejedjonyou will often hear 'If I'd've known' in informal conversation
Copy that. Once you start noticing this, it's just amazing how common it is. (A bit like "is is", but please don't get me started on that one.)
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Hi

I think it's more a question of what is allowable as a past modal subjunctive. If you allow the first of the following, it's difficult not to allow the fourth (which is Justin's lyric) ...

- If he would have appeared in court, he would have been granted bail

- If he would have known the conditions of his bail, he would be free and he would make it brand new

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... so to answer the original question. It might mean ...

- If I had allowed myself to know that you were, possibly, the love of my life then, now, if I had the chance, I would make it brand new: we could start to have a completely different kind of relationship

Dave
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GPYlike "is is", but please don't get me started on that one.
Emotion: shake
CJ
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dave_anon If you allow the first of the following, it's difficult not to allow the fourth
... If he would have appeared in court, ...
And therein lies the crux of the problem. I don't allow the first. And neither do countless others.
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That's OK. If a judge is referring to a defendant's continuous and wilful non-appearance in court, in the past, and the consequences of that, can he or she not say:

- If he would have appeared in court, he would have been granted bail

Obviously, there are different ways of saying it, but what do you see as the difficulty?

Dave
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.. and my own objection would be that it's a rather archaic thing that only a judge would say. Do young people actually use that form of verb? Step forward JB

Dave :-)
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dave_anonwhat do you see as the difficulty?
It's not standard to put 'would have' in an if-clause. The correct word is 'had'.

If he had appeared in court, he would have been granted bail.

The one with 'had' is said to be the standard form in about twenty thousand grammar books.
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