Quote:
A historian attempting to predict in the 1870's which nation would take over world leadership from the British probably would have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been quite wrong.
(A) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and been
(B) have guessed that it would have been Bismarck's Prussia and he would be
(C) have guessed Bismarck's Prussia and would be
(D) guess Bismarck's Prussia and be
(E) guess that it would be Bismarck's Prussia and would have been
altairahmad wrote:
Please help !!!
As per my understanding, the use of 'would have' in conditional sentence is when the sentence contains past perfect. I do not see past perfect here.
Will appreciate your comment on this.
Hi
altairahmad , you ask a good question. +1
Sometimes hypothetical (and conditional) constructions will not explicitly contain the words you are looking for.
Those sentences can still use constructions without their "other halves."
True, you do not see past perfect here. That fact is okay.
The use of "would have" is not confined to situations in which the past perfect is stated explicitly.
"Would have" is used to express the unreal past.
If a sentence can construct an unreal past without past perfect, the use of "would have" is perfectly acceptable.
Not actually mentioning the first part of a hypothetical is rare.
My hat is off to the authors of this sentence.
What to do? Start with the time period. The options tell us that verbs are at issue.
We know from the context that we are dealing with the unreal past.
The sentence is talking about a hypothetical historian in the 1870s. ("A historian attempting to . . .)
The actions are also hypothetical.
Both guessing and being wrong are hypothetical. (A hypothetical historian also makes hypothetical guesses and is hypothetically wrong.)
So we are dealing with the unreal past.
Now we can speculate and get our past perfect.
The not-real historian did not actually guess.
But IF (counterfactually)
she had guessed [past perfect!] which nation would take over she probably would _______ Bismark's Germany and _______ quite wrong
We could write the sentence with past perfect, this way:
If a historian
had attempted to predict in the 1870s which nation would take over world leadership from the British, she probably
would have guessed Bismark's Germany and [she
would have] been quite wrong.
Would have guessed and
would have been wrong are the verb tenses we use for the truly hypothetical: a not-real condition in the past and its not-real result in the future of the past.
Hope that helps.
If not, ask another question. (You might want to try tagging.
)