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English 1b3 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Tenses--conditionals

a. The driver of the car would have crashed, had he not been concentrating.

or The driver of the car would have crashed, if he had not been concentrating.

b. The driver of the car would have crashed, if he weren't concentrating.

or The driver of the car would have crashed, were he not concentrating.

c. The driver of the car would have crashed, if he wasn't concentrating.

Please explain the differences between a & b & c, if you see any?

Ta,

Eng
  

Top answer

There's no difference in meaning between a & b. Note, however, that b is acceptable only in an informal style (where the simple past were is sometimes used instead of the past perfect had been) c is incorrect. The "would have crashed" part in the main clause requires that the condition is counterfactual.

— Ivanhr

  • There's no difference in meaning between a & b.
  • Note, however, that b is acceptable only in an informal style (where the simple past were is sometimes used instead of the past perfect had been) c is incorrect.
  • The "would have crashed" part in the main clause requires that the condition is counterfactual.
  • Therefore the verb in the if-clause must be either had been or were .
  • The use of wasn't suggests that the condition isn't counterfactual (at least we cannot verify that at this point).
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3 Answers
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There's no difference in meaning between a & b. Note, however, that b is acceptable only in an informal style (where the simple past were is sometimes used instead of the past perfect had been)

c is incorrect. The "would have crashed" part in the main clause requires that the condition is counterfactual. Therefore the verb in the if-clause must be either had been or were. Th
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IvanhrThere's no difference in meaning between a & b. Note, however, that b is acceptable only in an informal style (where the simple past were is sometimes used instead of the past perfect had been) c is incorrect.)
Can't we say there is a difference between a & b, this difference being that b suggests the concentrating is still happening?

And with y
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English 1b3Can't we say there is a difference between a & b, this difference being that b suggests the concentrating is still happening?
No. If that were the case, the sentence would read

The driver would crash if he weren't concentrating.

English 1b3And with your sentence, I believe it suggests not that he definitel
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