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Hotmale Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

If there hadn't been ...

Hello,

is it correct to form a conditional sentence this way?

"If there hadn't been the war, they wouldn't have lost everything..."

Thank you
  

Top answer

" Yes, that is Conditional III.

— Mister Micawber

  • " Yes, that is Conditional III.
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5 Answers
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Hotmaleis it correct to form a conditional sentence this way?"If there hadn't been the war, they wouldn't have lost everything..."
Yes, that is Conditional III.
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The conditional structure of this is fine.

I have a slight quibble about the use of "the war" here. "a war" would be fine, but with the definiteness of "the", I would probably phrase it another way, such as "If it hadn't been for the war, they wouldn't have lost everything". Other people might be happy with the sentence as it stands.
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GPY Other people might be happy with the sentence as it stands.
No. It sounds slightly off to me.
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Yes, there is a construction error here.

Had there been no war, they wouldn't have lost anything.

This is fitting.
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