Verb Form in Subjunctive Clause within If Clause

Question

If you had gone to a bookstore where they (have/ had/ would have had/ could have had/ might have had) the book, ....I trust all the four options could possibly be used for the clause, depending on the situation. Would you be so kind as to help me see the connotational difference?Hiro

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Please finish the sentence.

HSS · Answer

Actually I wanted to deepen my understanding of how I should decide which verb form to use for verbs in a subjunctive (or, subordinate) clause inside a conditional clause with the main verb in the past subjunctive, or the past perfect subjunctive mood. I wondered if the moods affect the forms of the verbs in the subordinate clause inside.

I didn't think of any sentence for the main clause. I was just imagining anything logical that could follow the conditional clause there.

I think you could decide which verb form to use independent of the mood of the main verb.

If you had gone to a bookstore where they (have/ had/ would have had/ could have had/ might have had) the book, ....

have: where they have the book now. You don't know if they had it when 'I' would have gone.
would have had: You know they would have had it if circumstances were right.
could have had: You know they could have had it if circumstances were right.
might have had: You know they might possibly have had it.

The choices can be decided independent of the mood of the main verb, can't they? The time sequence theory is a bit too confusing, and I know this doesn't involve the theory.

Verb Form in Subjunctive Clause within If Clause

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