Look at sentences a and b from the story and answer questions 1-4.
a The Belóns would not have survived if others hadn’t
helped them.
b If Maria had been underwater any longer, she might
have drowned.
1 Do the sentences talk about the past, present or future?
2 Did the Belóns survive? Did others help them?
3 What tense is used after if in the sentences? What
verb forms are used in the other clause?
4 Why is the punctuation di erent in sentences a and b?
Answers & Comments
Ответ:
1. The sentences talk about the past.
2. The Belóns survived, and others helped them.
3. The tense used after "if" in the sentences is the past perfect tense. The verb forms used in the other clause are the conditional perfect (auxiliary verb + past participle) in sentence a and the conditional perfect modal verb + base verb in sentence b.
4. The punctuation is different in sentences a and b because sentence a uses a comma to separate the conditional clause from the main clause, while sentence b uses a comma to indicate a parenthetical phrase within the main clause.