Conditional III

[susan]

Test No. incompl/elem-11 "Conditionals", question 10

If I ......... very hard, I would have been able to stop smoking.

(a) try
(b) would have tried
(c) had tried

Test No. incompl/elem-11 "Conditionals", answer 10

If I had tried very hard, I would have been able to stop smoking.

Correct answer: (c) had tried

Your answer was: incorrect
If I would have tried very hard, I would have been able to stop smoking.
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I want to know why my answer was wrong

[Torsten]

This is a Conditional III construction which has two clauses, one that expresses a condition and one that describes the result. The condition clause starts with the word if and is followed by a Past Perfect construction. (If I had come earlier.) As you know the past perfect is made up by a form of have + past participle of the verb and the past participle of come is come.
The second clause of the third conditional describes a result and consists of would + have + past participle.
Sometimes the if-clause appears first and sometimes the would-have clause appears first in a sentence:

If I had left earlier I would have caught the train.
I would have caught the train if I had left earlier.

Let me know if this makes sense to you.
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[Alan]

Hi Susan,

Conditionals usually follow a certain pattern like this;

If I try hard, I will/shall succeed
If I tried hard, I would/should succeed
If I had tried hard, I would/should have succeeded

Unfortunately You have mixed up two forms. Have a look at the piece I wrote under English Lessons on this site with the title Conditionals.

Good luck

A
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[Alan]

Hi Susan again,

Aren't you lucky? You've got two answers for the price of one!!

A
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