[General] Had you not

[suniljain]

Had you not permitted me, I would not have approached to Ram.

Is the above sentence correct?

 

[Eckaslike]

Re: Hay you not

I think if "Ram" is a person, then it should be "Had you not permitted me, I would not have approached Ram."

 

[Matthew Wai]

Re: Hay you not

As the speaker had been permitted, why did s/he still approach Ram?

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: Hay you not

Matthew, it doesn't say permission had not been given, it says "Had you not given me permission ..." - that means permission was given but the speaker is saying what he/she would (not) have done if permission hadn't been given.

Suniljain, as shown in post #2, you need to remove "to" from after "approached". Your sentence is OK but it's a little convoluted. I'd expect to hear something like "I wouldn't have approached Ram if you'd told me not to" or "I wouldn't have approached Ram if you hadn't given me permission".

 

[Eckaslike]

Re: Hay you not

I think, in the stand alone context of the sentence as written, that there are three people involved here. The speaker, the one who has given permission to approach Ram, and Ram. It sounds as though the sentence is then needed because the one who gave permission initially to make the approach has either changed their mind about it, or forgotten that they have given permission.

Example scenario:
A = speaker
B = permission giver
Ram = Ram

A: "Do I have your permission to contact Ram to discuss how to resolve this problem?"
B: "Of course, but let me know the outcome."

A then contacts Ram to discuss

Next day:
A: "Ram says we probably need to completely restructure the project in order to make it work."
B: "Why were you speaking to him, it's none of his business?"
A: "Had you not permitted me, I would not have approached Ram [in the first place]."

Where I work character A would be more likely to say, "But yesterday you gave me permission to speak to him". The "Had you not permitted..." sentence may be more appropriate in a more formal workplace.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Re: Hay you not

Matthew, it doesn't say permission had not been given,

I think I didn't say 'had not been' in my above post, but I am not a teacher.

 

[emsr2d2]

Re: Hay you not

I think I didn't say 'had not been' in my above post, but I am not a teacher.

You're right, you didn't. I misread it. Having said that, the question you asked doesn't make sense. If the person had been given permission, why wouldn't they approach Ram?

 

[cs4english]

Had you not permitted me, I would not have approached [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] Ram.

Is the above sentence correct?

It seems to be mostly correct, except for the preposition 'to'.