Bob wished he had been born Thomas Edison

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Bassim

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I am posting this sentence because I am not sure if it makes sense in English. I just want to see where I made a mistake. I am not sure if the second part "and would have been able to invent..." is the correct tense.

Bob wished he had been born Thomas Edison and would have been able to invent all kinds of things and help humankind.
 
emsr2d2

emsr2d2

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Bassim said:
I am posting this sentence because I am not sure if it makes sense in English. I just want to see where I made a mistake. I am not sure if the second part "and would have been able to invent..." is the correct tense.

Bob wished he had been born Thomas Edison and [STRIKE]would have been able to invent[/STRIKE] could have invented all [STRIKE]kinds of[/STRIKE] the things Edison did [STRIKE]and[/STRIKE] to help [STRIKE]humankind[/STRIKE] mankind.
Click to expand...

See above. A small number of people might prefer "humankind" to the more common "mankind" but I don't. You could avoid the issue completely by saying "all the very/incredibly useful things ...".
 
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