Question posted on my Facebook page by Jakub Res of Brno, Czech Republic (February 26, 2015):Dear Jose,
I have a question regarding third conditional + reporting. How do you comment on the following sentence when constructed in the third conditional?
“Franz didn’t take that job he was offered.”
Does one have to stick to the past simple as in Sentence 1 below or does one shift the tenses instead, say from past simple to past perfect, as in Sentence 2?
1. “If I had been Franz, I would have taken that job he was offered.”
or
2. “If I had been Franz, I would have taken that job he had been offered.”
Thanks a lot for your answer. It will be much appreciated.
My reply to Jakub Res:I don’t think the situation you described can be properly stated using a third conditional (no possibility) sentence. This is because a third conditional sentence talks about a real-life condition in the past that actually didn’t transpire, thus making it impossible for the wished-for result to have come true. This type of sentence is in the
indicative mood, meaning that
it denotes acts and states in real-world situations. It consists of an “if” clause that states the impossible past real-life condition using the past perfect tense “had + past participle of the verb,” followed by a comma, then followed by the impossible past result in the form “would have + past participle of the verb.”
Here’s an example of a third conditional sentence: “
If I had saved enough money,
I would have bought that house.” The speaker here is talking of an unrealized real-world outcome because he had not saved enough money and consequently was unable to buy that house. It was actually possible for him to save money to buy it but as it happened, either because he didn’t earn enough or because he was a spendthrift, he was unable to save enough and so was unable to buy that house.
In contrast, the situation you described involves an act or state that’s contingent on the possible outcome of the speaker’s wish, desire, or imagined situation. In particular, the sentence you have in mind will describe
the outcome of an unreal situation or an idea contrary to fact. It's not possible at all for Franz to be the speaker; it's just a wished-for imaginary situation that can't possibly be realized. So it’s a sentence that’s entirely different from a third conditional sentence, which as I earlier explained talks about an unrealizable but real-world outcome. The sentence you have in mind therefore couldn’t be in the indicative mood; it's in the
subjunctive mood instead, and there’s no such thing as a third conditional in the subjunctive mood.
Typically, the form of the subjunctive that describes the outcome of an unreal situation or of an idea contrary to fact consists of the following: (a) an “if”-clause where the verb consistently uses the subjunctive plural past tense “were” to indicate an impossible supposition or possibility, and (b) an outcome clause of the form “subject + would have + past participle of the verb.”
In the particular case of the situation you presented, the sentence would take this subjunctive form: “
If I were Franz,
I would have taken that job he was offered.” Its more straightforward form is, of course, “
I would have taken that job he was offered
if I were Franz.”
One other thing: No reporting verb is required in that particular subjunctive sentence, so there will be no shifting of tenses at all. (And in any case, as explained in an earlier Forum posting of mine on the subject, third conditionals don't backshift at all in reported speech.)
Below, I am providing you with links to related readings in the Forum to give you a better grasp of conditional sentences, subjunctive usage, and the backshifting of verbs in reported speech.
RELATED READINGS:How conditional indicative sentences differ from subjunctive sentencesWhen are subjunctive sentences called for and how are they constructed?Do better than a calculated guess in handling conditional sentencesDo conditional sentences backshift in reported speech?
