In my workbook on the subjunctive, in the chapter on hypothetical statements, there is a short mention of the following construction with the aforementioned phrases. I do not understand how they are used. I will copy a little from the book:
Quote:
You may encounter two alternatives for the imperfect subjunctive portion of this tandem construction, namely, the use of de haber... or a no ser por... followed by the conditional or compound conditional, depending on whether the hypothesis is present or past. Thus, these expressions are modified to become equivalents of the pluperfect subjunctive simply by the use of the infinitive of haber plus the past participle of ser.
| De no haber sido por la tormenta, el avión habría llegado a tiempo. | Had it not been for the storm, the plane would have arrived on time. |
|
The book then goes on to say how obvious and apparent this construction is, and that it won't devote any more time to something so mechanical and dependable. So I guess that I'm the dunce, because I don't get it......
I DO understand the example given. But I don't understand it well enough to ever be able to create even one more sentence with that construction. AND, it is in the negative, so I can't imagine this construction in the affirmative. AND, I can't imagine the other (using "a no ser por..."), and they did not give an example of that.......
SOOOooooo, I'm looking for examples, please!! Several examples of each (
de haber... and
a no ser por...) would be extremely appreciated!!
Thank you for any help you can give me.
May 30, 2011, 04:50 AM
The use of the conditional with "de haber" or "a no ser por" (examples requested)
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