Rita is exhausted today because ...

Question

This is a sentence transformation question:

Rita is exhausted today because she has been working all day.
= If Rita weren't working hard all day, she wouldn't be exhausted.
Is it correct? I chose " type 2" for this kind of "sentence condition". I don't think "If she hadn't been working all day" is correct. I am so confused. Thanks in advance.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Rita is exhausted today because she has been working.

If she hadn't been working all day, she wouldn't be exauhsted.

Or If Rita hadn't been working all day, she wouldn't be exauhsted.

Or If (Rita/she) was not working hard all day, she wouldn't be exauhsted.

So yes it really is correct, even though it may sound funny. You use were when you talk about more than one person or thing. You use was for one person or thing. Did this help?

Avangi · Answer

fireflysaigonRita is exhausted today because she has been working all day.

I think only the past perfect progressive is correct, even though your original is present perfect progressive.
To me, the context implies that the "working" has gone on all day, and the present tense "is exhausted" refers to a time after much of the action has taken place.

If you say, "I'm exhausted because I'm working hard" (simple present followed by present progressive), the action is ongoing.

Your transformation could then be, "If I were not working

hard, I would not be

exhausted."

Dimsumexpress · Answer

If Rita hadn't been working all day..... is the first half of the type 3 conditional structure and the second half should be accompanied with " she wouldn't have been so tired."

with "wouldn't be so tired" in the second half of the construction, some considered it "mixed" condition and incorrect as far as grammatically appying the conditionals are concerned. However, in conversation, people may not tell you and call you wrong.

Type 3 is used to express past conter-factual events.

If I hadn't helped you with for the last 6 months, you would have been on the street. - but the fact is, I did help you.

If she hadn't married John and became a house wife, she would have been a very successful business woman. The reality is, she made that choice and she is no longer a career woman.

Please note that the placement of the "if" clause and " the "main" clause can be transposed. i.e.
she would have been a very successful business woman, had she not / If she hadn't married John ....

Hope that helps

Avangi · Answer

dimsumexpressIf she hadn't married John and became a house wife, she would have been a very successful business woman.

I think instead of "became" (simple past) you mean "become" (past participle). Your sentences says "If she became a housewife she would have been a business woman."
If you want to distribute "hadn't" to both verbs, the forms must be the same:
hadn't married
hadn't become

Rgdz, - A.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Thanks Avangi, I realized the error after I posted it. I added that portion for the descriptive effect and in doing so, I got the tense confused. Well, that's what happened when your brain is working like an updated Pentium, sometimes, trying to multi-task can get you mixed up....<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/10.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/10.gif' alt='Emotion: embarrassed'/>

Avangi · Answer

Been there. Done that.

Darn those verbs whose past participles are different from their simple pasts anyway!

Well, at least you didn't call it a typo. [Y]

CalifJim · Answer

fireflysaigonI don't think "If she hadn't been working all day" is correct.

Why not? It seems perfectly fine to me. The second sentence doesn't mean the exact same thing that the first sentence means, but that's OK. This is an exercise in grammar, not in logic.

This seems to be an exercise in "mixed conditionals", by the way. The contrafactual is in the past; the result is in the present. (I'm guessing. Maybe your textbook or your teacher wants the pure third conditional on these. Maybe you can comment further on the requirements of the exercise in another post.)

She's exhausted because she has been working all day.
If she hadn't been working all day, she wouldn't be exhausted.

They are overjoyed because their favorite team has won the championship.
If their favorite team had not won the championship, they would not be overjoyed.

Karen doesn't speak Japanese fluently anymore because she has forgotten so much of it over the years.

If Karen had not forgotten so much Japanese over the years, she would speak it fluently now.

CJ

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