Could anyone help me to complete correctively this sentence?

[GuilhermeRM]

''Although every road in the town is now


paved, there are actually some residents


who will prefer that the dirt roads be preserved.''

Why isn't correct to use ''would prefer'' rather than ''had prefer''? Thank you

[Academic Writing]

''Although every road in the town is now


paved, there are actually some residents


who will prefer that the dirt roads be preserved.''

Why isn't correct to use ''would prefer'' rather than ''had prefer''? Thank you

Hi GuilhermeRM,

"will prefer" is not correct because the paving has already been completed and the dirt roads can no longer be preserved.

"would prefer" is closer but does not quite work because, again, it is no longer possible to preserve the dirt roads (they could be replaced at this point, but not preserved).

You could say "...who would have preferred that the dirt roads be preserved."

There are other possibilities as well. For instance, you could change the sentence to something like this:

"Although every road in the town is now paved, there are actually some residents who wanted the dirt roads to be preserved."

You could also tighten up the sentence a bit by saying "...paved, some residents had actually wanted the dirt roads to be preserved."

[Cory Sampson]

Alternatively, if you wish to preserve the word "prefer", you could say "Although every road in the town is now paved, there are actually some residents who preferred the dirt roads."

The meaning is not entirely the same, however, so be careful if you go this way.

[GuilhermeRM]

Sorry, but I still have doubt about this phrase. ''There are some residents'' indicates present, but ''had prefer'' and ''wanted the roads to be preserved'' incite that people only during the past time before and during the pavement (respectively, right?) wanted the roads dirty, but no longer desire it. Doesn't ''would'' indicate an abiding desire for dirty roads, an opinion about past actions? Thank you.

[Academic Writing]

The verb in the second part of the sentence could take a few tenses, depending on the desired connotation. One way to emphasize the residents' continued feeling would be something like this:

"Although every road in the town is now paved, there are actually some residents who wish they had been preserved."

The ideas might transition better with something like this:

"It has been decades since the final road in the town was paved, but there are actually some residents who still wish they had been preserved." There are many ways to write this sentence but I'm wondering if this is what you are looking for. Do these examples help answer your question?

[GuilhermeRM]

Hello Academic Writing, thank you for the example. But, actually, what is the difference between ''would prefer'', ''would had prefered'' '''' and ''would prefered''. To me, the slightly difference sounds because ''had' and ''ed'' indicates a desire that stayed in the past,in oposition to ''would prefer'', which indicates a continuated desire, or a desire in the present (the sentence uses ''there are'', if it was ''there were'' I think I would put ''had prefered''). I'm still confused ,sorry. Thank you.

[Barb_D]

After "would" you need a bare infinitive. That is, the "to verb" without the "to."

So you can have "would prefer" or "would have preferred" but not "would preferred" or "would had preferred."