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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary

Third conditional

Hi everyone,
I am an Italian girl who love the English. Right now I am struggling with the third conditional.
I know the difference between the modals COULD and WOULD but I don't get how to choose which one to choose. And example:
If she had studied more, she would have passed the exam.
Why is COULD wrong?
Thank you so much
  

Top answer

"could" is not wrong. "if ... " just denotes less certainty than "if ...

— GPY

  • "could" is not wrong.
  • "if ...
  • " just denotes less certainty than "if ...
  • "
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5 Answers
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"could" is not wrong. "if ... could have ..." just denotes less certainty than "if ... would have ..."
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Any of these modals indicating possibility can be used. They just reflect more or less likelihood of the consequence:

If she had studied more, she would have passed the exam.
If she had studied more, she could have passed the exam.
If she had studied more, she might have passed the exam.
If she had studied more, she should have passed the exam.

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AnonymousIf she had studied more, she would have passed the exam. Why is COULD wrong?
You are mistaken. "Could" is not wrong.

would (have) says that she definitely would have passed the exam. (It: avrebbe riuscito)
could (have) says that she would have been able to pass the exam. (It: avrebbe potut
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I think I can help on this one.

- He would have passed the exam = Avrebbe passato l'esame.
- He would have been able to pass the exam = Sarebbe stato in grado di passare l'esame.

The equivalence would have bee able to = could have can be made in Italian too for cases like this. Thus
He could have passed the exam = Avrebbe potuto passare l'e
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Henry74I think I can help on this one.
Thanks. By the way, I just picked a verb, any verb, as an illustration. I wasn't trying to translate the sentence itself.
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