If you never started (real) If you had found (unreal)

[Marika33]

I found this comment on YouTube and I think it has a grammatical error. Do you agree? Am I correct in my assumption?

(link - second from the top)

I believe the part "if you never started Yura's quest and found Shabriri first instead, and you killed Shabriri outright, you can still obtain ..." is absolutely grammatical. We do not need the past perfect form "If you had never started", because the condition is real, it's not hypothetical or unreal, but it's still about the past, so the past simple form (or the present perfect form) is needed: "If you never started..." or "If you've never started...".

While the last part "... where he would've been if you found him and started his quest" is grammatically flawed, because here the speaker is talking about an imaginary, unreal past, so that should've been "... where he would've been if you had found him and (had) started his quest" instead.

 

[jutfrank]

I believe the part "if you never started Yura's quest and found Shabriri first instead, and you killed Shabriri outright, you can still obtain ..." is absolutely grammatical. We do not need the past perfect form "If you had never started", because the condition is real, it's not hypothetical or unreal, but it's still about the past, so the past simple form (or the present perfect form) is needed: "If you never started..." or "If you've never started...".

Yes.

While the last part "... where he would've been if you found him and started his quest" is grammatically flawed, because here the speaker is talking about an imaginary, unreal past, so that should've been "... where he would've been if you had found him and (had) started his quest" instead.

Right. The sentence needs 'had', as you say.

 

[Marika33]

Yes.

I was just listening to a guy that first said this (below), talking about a real past possibilty:

• "... what if someone had come into the bank in those 30 seconds" (link to the exact moment)
• instead of "... what if someone came into the bank in those 30 seconds"

I was a bit confused once I'd heard that, thinking maybe he was just talking about something that he thought was unreal, but then after several seconds he said this:

• "... what if someone was leaving there and saw the money in the ATM and grabbed it and took off" (link to the exact moment)
• instead of "... what if someone had been leaving there and seen the money in the ATM and grabbed it and taken off".
• or maybe "... what if someone had been leaving there and saw the money in the ATM and grabbed it and took off" (in case when there are several consecutive actions in the unreal mood only the first one should be in the past perfect).

Could you please explain to me, is it correct to use the past perfect talking about a real past possibility (e.g. "If you had liked the video, give it a like and subscribe to the channel") as the guy did in the first sentence? If so, why do you think he then used the "was leaving" instead of "had been leaving", talking about the same situation?

 

[jutfrank]

Throughout the video, he's flipping between the perspective of now (the time of the video) and the perspective of the time after he realised he didn't have the money.

I was just listening to a guy that first said this (below), talking about a real past possibilty:

• "... what if someone had come into the bank in those 30 seconds" (link to the exact moment)

He's talking about the time before returning to the bank, so the past perfect sequences events. He's talking from the perspective of the time of the video when he was hypothesising someone having come into the bank.

• instead of "... what if someone came into the bank in those 30 seconds"

I was a bit confused once I'd heard that, thinking maybe he was just talking about something that he thought was unreal, but then after several seconds he said this:

• "... what if someone was leaving there and saw the money in the ATM and grabbed it and took off" (link to the exact moment)

Here he's talking from the perspective of the past. He's voicing the thoughts he had at the time.

I'm not surprised you're confused, given that he's flipping between time perspectives.

 

[Marika33]

I was just listening to a guy that first said this (below), talking about a real past possibilty:

• "... what if someone had come into the bank in those 30 seconds"

He's talking about the time before returning to the bank, so the past perfect sequences events. He's talking from the perspective of the time of the video when he was hypothesising someone having come into the bank.

Hmm... so it's not actually the third conditional (unreal), it's a real past conditional sentence that is in the past perfect just to show the sequence of events... Very interesting! Thanks!