Tense

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Hi, teachers. Please help me when you are free.

"If you knew what I had gone through, you would surely pity me."

Can I change had into have in the sentence above?

If possible, will the sentence meaning change?

Yoong Liat · Accepted Answer

tashiro"If you knew what I had gone through, you would surely pity me."

Can I change had into have in the sentence above?

You cannot use 'have' instead because 'had' in the sentence is hypothetical.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

tashiro"If you knew what I had gone through, you would surely pity me."

Tashiro:

Your sentence is in present tense, subjunctive mood.
The following is the same sentence, but changed to past tense, subjunctive mood:

If you had known what I had gone through, you surely would have pitied me.

CalifJim · Answer

tashiro"If you knew what I had gone through, you would surely pity me."

Can I change had into have in the sentence above?

No. If you possibly can, you need to keep all the parts of the sentence in the same point of view with regard to tenses.

knew is simple past. have gone is present perfect. They don't normally go together.

Present point of view: Present tenses, tenses with auxiliary do, does, have, has, will, can, may, must, shall, should, ...
Past point of view: Past tenses, tenses with auxiliary did, had, would, could, might, ...

(would, could, and might can sometimes be used in a present point of view as well.)

So the following are not correct because they don't stay in the past point of view established by the introductory clause:

You knew what I will do.
You knew what I have done.
I thought that he may leave soon.
I thought that she can help.

Correct:

You knew what I would do.
You knew what I had done.
I thought that he might leave soon.
I thought that she could help.

You know what I will do.
You know what I have done.
I think that he may leave soon.
I think that she can help.

Borrowing past point of view forms into a present context:

You know what I would do. [common]

......
I think that he might leave soon. [very common]
I think that she could help. [common]

The forms knew and thought have to be watched most closely for this kind of mistake.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

"If you knew what I had gone through, you would surely pity me."

Don't listen to these people. You can change it to "have" because only the first verb has to be in the subjunctive mood. The verb "knew" is not in the simple past indicative; it's in the simple past subjunctive. Fowler tells us that English does not have to have verb agreement with other verbs in subordinate clauses; therefore you can say:

If you knew [what I have gone through], you would surely pity me.

The subordinate clause is bracketed so that you know what I'm talking about. This is not contrary to fact. You HAVE gone through a lot of ****. There is nothing wrong, though, with keeping it in the past—at least according to Fowler. It is your decision, but you can say "have" here. Here is the present subjunctive form:

If you know what I have gone through, you will surely pity me.

If you should know what I have gone through, you will surely pity me.

Should you know what I have gone through, you will surely pity me.

This would be easily spotted in 3rd person:

If he know what I have gone through, he will surely pity me.

If he should know what I have gone through, he will surely pity me.

Should he know what I have gone through, he will surely pity me.

Many people say "if he knows" to be a conditional, but that is just informal. The way above is a formal tone of saying it. The difference of formality is strictly based on the speaker. He is not wrong if he say "if he knows".

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