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Unreal past situations

Example
  • If you had worked harder, you would have passed your exam.

if + past perfect; would have + past participle​

To talk about past situations that did not happen, we use a past perfect tense in the if-clause, and would have + past participle in the other part of the sentence.

  • If you had asked me, I would have told you. (not If you would have asked me …) or If you asked me … or … I had told you.
  • If you had worked harder, you would have passed your exam.
  • I’d have been in bad trouble if Megan hadn’t helped me.

could have … and might have …​

We can use could have + past participle to mean ‘would have been able to …’, and might have + past participle to mean ‘would perhaps have … ’ or ‘would possibly have …’.

  • If he’d run a bit faster, he could have won.
  • If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have realised what was happening.

Present use: situations that are no longer possible​

We sometimes use structures with would have … to talk about present and future situations which are no longer possible because of the way things have turned out.

  • It would have been nice to go to Australia this winter, but there’s no way we can do it. (or It would be nice …)
  • If my mother hadn’t met my father at a party thirty years ago, I wouldn’t have been here now. (or … I wouldn’t be here now.)