Is the sentence grammatically correct?

Question

"If their souls smiled as much as their lips do, then they would have been with the people of the heavens."
I personally think that it is incorrect, because past perfect should have been used in the IF clause of the sentence to make it a third conditional or either only "would" and first form of the verb should have been used in the main clause to make it a second conditional....I will be grateful if somebody confirms it.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

This seems okay to me. Often in English, the tenses are not strictly in terms of time. For example, here you have "smiled" (past) together with "do" (present) in the same clause. This seems okay here. You're not speaking strictly in past time and then suddenly switching to present time in the same clause. Here the past tense and present tense are chosen more for their literary effect. Moreover, when you talk about lips, it's typically in the present, and the word "souls" is a very serious word often spoken of in the past tense.

Using "would have been" in the following clause also seems okay. Again, this seems more for effect than any strict time sequence of events. Many other tenses could be used in the following clause, but "would have been" has a serious sound to it, which fits with a serious word like "souls."

The only thing I see that's questionable is the phrase "the people of the heavens." This sounds strange, at least to American ears. I'm not exactly sure what this means.

Imantaghavi · Answer

Dear Anonym,

No.You have to use one of the followings:

1.If their souls smiled as much as their lips do, then they would smile with the people of the heavens.(second conditional:unreal possibilities)

2.If their souls had smiled as much as their lips do, then they would have been with the people of the heavens.(third conditional:unreal past situations)

Hope that helps

Iman

Anonymous · Answer

The sentence is perfectly good English. In fact it is very good and sophisticated English. The alteration suggested in the post above change the meaning of the sentence and make less sense.

"The people of the Heavens" suggests saintly and noble people.

Anonymous · Answer

This whole business of conditionals is something most native speakers have never heard of. It may be a good rule of thumb to help prevent non-native learners going badly astray, but it is hardly a "rule of grammar". I remember one ESL teacher saying that the golden rule of English grammar is that every other rule has exceptions. The rule about conditionals obviously has exceptions too. I am confident that the sentence is fine as first written and that any linguist or grammarian would agree with me. Most native speakers would be bewildered by anyone thinking it was somehow incorrect.

There is nothing amiss with the time sequence. For example: We found them among the sons of darkness, but if their souls smiled as much as their lips do, they would have been found among the people of the heavens.

Anonymous · Answer

I understand that there are something like 64 conditional combinations in English. The student needn't be familiar with them all but needs to know more than the four usually taught.

Question, is there a grammatical difference between the following sentences:

"If their souls smiled as much as their lips do, then they would have been with the people of the heavens (by now)."

"If their Ford ran as well as their Volvo does, then they would have been with us by now."

Is the sentence grammatically correct?

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