Why is “if you took” instead of “if you had taken” used here?
“I know,” he said without looking up. “You were wise to keep the entire ship in deep-sea state.”
“It had to be this way. Otherwise, agitated officers and soldiers would have attacked this cabin. And if you took Natural Selection to Ahead Four at will, you would have killed them all. That’s also the reason why the pursuers haven’t closed in.”
Excerpt From
The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth's Past)
Cixin Liu
Context: the ship called “Natural Selection” is a extremely large spaceship. There are four types of acceleration among which the highest is called “The Ahead Four”, which would allow the spaceship to travel at one-hundredth the speed of light. According to physics, the passengers (in this case, the officers and soldiers) would be dead in a spaceship traveling that fast—only deep-sea state can protect them. And before the quoted conversation, the spaceship has already been taken to Ahead Four.
Question:
Why is “if you took” instead of “if you had taken” used here?
Thank you.
Top answer
Wow! Another one! This must be the season for finding these unusual conditionals.
- Wow!
- Another one!
- This must be the season for finding these unusual conditionals.
- I think we've had four or five threads on this topic in the last few weeks.
- Explanation 1: The if -statement proposes something about the real past.
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Wow! Another one!
This must be the season for finding these unusual conditionals. I think we've had four or five threads on this topic in the last few weeks.
Explanation 1: The if-statement proposes something about the real past. The main clause tells us the hypothetical result (also in the past).
Explanation 2: The author has substituted the simple past for the p
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