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If I Would Have… vs. If I Had…

Reprinted with permission by Editor Laura Lawless, http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/.

When talking about something that didn’t happen in the past, many English speakers use the conditional perfect (if I would have done) when they should be using the past perfect (if I had done).

For example, you find out that your brother saw a movie yesterday. You would have liked to see it too, but you hadn’t known he was going. To express this, you can use an if – then clause. The correct way to say this is with the past perfect in the “if” clause, and the conditional perfect in the “then” clause:

Correct: If I had known that you were going to the movies, [then] I would have gone too.

The conditional perfect can only go in the “then” clause — it is grammatically incorrect to use the conditional perfect in the “if” clause:

Incorrect: If I would have known that you were going to the movies, I would have gone too.

More examples:

Correct: If I had gotten paid, we could have traveled together.

Incorrect: If I would have gotten paid, we could have traveled together.

Correct: If you had asked me, I could have helped you.

Incorrect: If you would have asked me, I could have helped you.

The same mistake occurs with the verb “wish.” You can’t use the conditional perfect when wishing something had happened; you again need the past perfect.

Correct: I wish I had known.

Incorrect: I wish I would have known.

Correct: I wish you had told me.

Incorrect: I wish you would have told me.

Correct: We wish they had been honest.

Incorrect: We wish they would have been honest.

Pop Quiz

Choose A or B.

1.A. If I would have known you were sick, I could have brought you some meals.
1.B. If I had known you were sick, I could have brought you some meals.

2.A. If you had explained the objective, I could have completed the assignment sooner.
2.B. If you would have explained the objective, I could have completed the assignment sooner.

3.A. I wish it would have gone differently.
3.B. I wish it had gone differently.

4.A. We wish the team had scored more goals.
4.B. We wish the team would have scored more goals.

Answers

1.B.
2.A.
3.B.
4.A.

Posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 7:25 pm