Using conditionals with modals and "to be"

Hi,

What was the complete sentence, please?

Clive

Give us the whole sentence. It's just as impossible to say whether that is correct as to say whether a sentence is correct that contains "will they" or "someone having".

I may be able to construct a sentence that uses that sequence of words correctly, but that doesn't mean that you have done so.

CJ

Fair enough. What I was asking is would it be possible for the construction to be correct, but yes, a whole sentence is better.

"[A soul song sung by a white woman was] played on rock radio, which it probably would not have had it been a soul song performed by a heavy-set black woman."

This is certainly more information -- adding the "performed" may change the ans

My humble contribution: after "which," remove "it." "Which" is a relative pronoun referring to the whole sentence "A soul ...rock radio." It means "which fact," i e., the fact that "A soul ...on rock radio." Thus, you get "A soul song ...rock radio, which probably would not have occurred, had it been a soul ...woman." "Had it been" is elegant for "If it had been."

joshuamcgee"[A soul song sung by a white woman was] played on rock radio, which it probably would not have had it been a soul song performed by a heavy-set black woman."

Geez, if it hadn't been for the anonymous post just before mine, I wouldn't have understood that sentence at all (I'm not a native speaker though).
I guess it's because it's written

I understand that this sentence is difficult, possibly even tortured. Were I to publish it, I would probably rewrite it to something like:

"[A soul song sung by a white woman was] played on rock radio. I believe rock radio would not have played it if the song had been performed by a heavy-set black woman."

In deference to the anonymous respondent, I will remove the which

You do need a comma between "have" and "had." The word sequence itself is okay.

joshuamcgee What I was asking is would it be possible for the construction to be correct, but yes, a whole sentence is better.

It would be possible for that sequence of words to be correct. Yes. Calling that sequence "a construction" confused the issue, I think, because it's really two constituents of two separate clauses. That's why a comma is neede

CalifJim

... it probably would not have, had it been ...

It is a "third conditional", if you want the technical name. And the underlying if clause if it had been is rephrased with subject-verb inversion as had it been.

CJ

Thank you. Very much, thank you.

Do you have a recommendation fo

You might find this useful:

Introduction to the Grammar of English by Rodney Huddleston, first published 1984, 470 pages, Cambridge University Press.

Don't let the word "Introduction" fool you. It's actually rather advanced and comprehensive.

CJ