conditional III

[virus99]

Hi forum!

Here is a conditional I haven't seen so far:

"Had this happened in South Africa - a year before the World Cup - many suggest that the world’s media would have been pressuring the football governing body, FIFA, to move the tournament someplace safer."

Are there more options to exchange the past participle in a conditional III?

This would have been my sentence:

"Had this happened in SA.....the world's media would have pressurised the football governing body......"

Is the only difference between the two sentences the indication that the pressurising would have lasted over a longer periode (above) whilst there is only the fact given in the sentences below? <--------- one of my longest sentences ever (correctly?) written,

Thanks for your time and efford in advance!!

[5jj]

"Had this happened in South Africa - a year before the World Cup - many suggest that the world’s media would have been pressuring the football governing body, FIFA, to move the tournament someplace safer."

This suggests that they did not pressure, and are not pressuring, FIFA.

"Had this happened in SA.....the world's media would have pressurised the football governing body......"

This suggests only that they did not pressure FIFA.

"Had this happened in South Africa - a year before the World Cup - many suggest that the world’s media would be pressuring..."

This suggests only that they are not pressuring FIFA.

[virus99]

Thanks! That was really helpful!!!

[5jj]

I suspect that part of your problem stems from the commonly held belief that there are three forms of conditional sentence, usually classed as first, second and third conditiona(al)s or as conditionals 1, 2 and 3, and that there is a strict sequence of tenses that must be followed. To this list are often added the mixed and third conditionals. In fact, there is a large range of possible conditional sentences. I have expanded on this here: http://www.gramorak.com/Articles/Conditionals.pdf