Many of us bemoan our lack of foresight by complaining that if we woul

Question

Many of us bemoan our lack of foresight  by complaining that if we would have bought property twenty years ago, we could have taken advantage of the recent real estate boom .

A. by complaining that if we would have bought property twenty years ago, we could have taken advantage of the recent real estate boom

B. , looking backward to a potential property purchase twenty years ago and wishing we had done so for present purposes

C. : with real estate available so cheaply twenty years ago, the advantages of the recent boom would be ours for the asking

D. , complaining that if we had bought property twenty years ago, we could have taken advantage of the recent real estate boom

E. , the complaint being our lack of purchasing property twenty years ago and the consequent absence of profit in the recent real estate boom

daagh · Accepted Answer

Let's have a simple rule in mind. In "conditional clauses"- the clauses that use the conditional marker 'if'', one will never find the futuristic auxiliary verbs such as 'will' or 'would', or 'would have'. These auxiliary verbs will be used only in the main clause. This is because, the conditional and the causal part of the sentence ought to have happened earlier than the main clause. If the conditional clause does not happen or did not happen or had not happened, the effectual main clause will never happen or would not happen or would not have happened respectively.

That is the reason that A is essentially wrong. One can see in D that the conditional part is in an earlier tense i.e. - had bought, - and the main part is in the perfect tense such as 'could have' taken. Every time we use a past perfect tense in the conditional part, we use a '' would have or could have or might have or should have" structure in the main clause. This is technically called a conditional perfect but there is nothing to bother about the terminology.

Archit3110 · Answer

IMO D; complaining that if we had bought property twenty years ago, we  could have taken advantage of the recent real estate boom
comparision recent past and future is done ...

anoop1995 · Answer

After the process of elimination, I was left with A and D, and I chose A. Why is A wrong?

nehasomani33 · Answer

Bunuel  - I am unable to understand the reason of choosing an option which has "if had, could" over "If would have, could"

Could you please elaborate?

Posted from my mobile device

rocky620 · Answer

Hi experts  Bunuel   GMATNinja  i too have a similar query as above

itoyj · Answer

Would is conditional i.e something that didn't happen
Would is used to denote future from the reference of past
Eg. I would have scored 100 marks in my maths exam if I had studied well.

Here the action was to take place in past itself not the future of past, thus would is eliminated

VerbalBot · Answer

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Many of us bemoan our lack of foresight by complaining that if we woul

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Many of us bemoan our lack of foresight by complaining that if we woul

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