[Grammar] Is this sentence correct?

[FoX123]

If you had done your job, known your place, we would be fine now.

Personally, I wouldn't use past perfect in this case. I heard this on the breaking bad and I've been wondering about it since then.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Raymott]

What other tense could you use there? And why?
That's not grammatical as written, though it's easy to imagine it said. I'd use dashes instead of the commas.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would use "and" after the first comma.

 

[Rover_KE]

FoX, please note that a better title would have been If you had done your job.

Extract from the Posting Guidelines:

'Thread titles should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.'

 

[FoX123]

What other tense could you use there? And why?
That's not grammatical as written, though it's easy to imagine it said. I'd use dashes instead of the commas.

Well, I would say: If you did your job and known your place, we would be fine now.

 

[Rover_KE]

That doesn't work, FoX. Stick to Mike's suggestion.

Note that 'Breaking Bad', the title of a TV show, should be capitalised and put in quotation marks or italicised.

 

[FoX123]

That doesn't work, FoX. Stick to Mike's suggestion.

Note that 'Breaking Bad', the title of a TV show, should be capitalised and put in quotation marks or italicised.

And why doesn't it work, exactly?

It's nice that 'Breaking Bad' should be capitalized and all, but that doesn't really help me that much...

Thank you.

 

[emsr2d2]

Something else must have happened in between the "not doing your job" and this sentence being spoken, in order for the "not doing your job" to be relevant. On that basis, the past perfect is appropriate because it precedes another event.

If you say "If you did your job ..." it would sound like a habitual action. Clearly there has been one specific event during which the person did not do their job and it had consequences.

If you had done your job and if you had known your place (specifically at the time being spoken about), XXX would not have happened (at or after the time being spoken about).

Please don't use snarky phrases like "It's nice that 'Breaking Bad' should be capitalised and all ...". Everything we write on this forum is designed to help learners improve their English. We will correct every error we find.

 

[FoX123]

Thank you kind sir! I do get it now. That's the answer I was looking for.

Well, I've made up a few sentences using past perfect, and I'd like to know if they're correct!

If they had done their job, none of that would have happened.

He hadn't seen it coming when he arrived.

I had been preparing for ages but I failed the exam anyway.

If they hadn't intervened before the meeting took place, they would have been alive by now.

I had known him for ages before you met him.

If he had done the job and left before they arrived, he would have been fine.

Thank you very much.

 

[emsr2d2]

All of your examples are correct.

Please don't refer to all users here as "sir". It's overly formal and it excludes all our female members (of which I am one).