Hypothetical conditions about the past

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When we formulate a hypothesis about an action or situation in the past, we know the condition was not fulfilled because the past cannot be changed. Therefore these hypotheses are sometimes called "impossible conditional clauses".


  We know the speaker is formulating a hypothesis about the past because the verb in the if-clause is in past perfect and the verb in the matrix clause in perfect conditional (modal auxiliary verb + perfect infinitive):

If he had not committed a crime, the policeman would not have arrested him.         

  What happened?  He committed a crime and the policeman has just arrested him.


OTHER FORMS are possible in HYPOTHETICAL CONDITIONS about the past:

If he had seen you, he might have stopped to talk to you. (Perhaps he would have stopped or perhaps not.)

 


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