[Grammar] Would have / Would have had

[chameleon82]

1. "If I had an investor, I would have to pay him back"

2. "If I had an investor, I would have had to pay him back"

I am getting confused between these sentences. Somebody Please tell me Which of the above sentences is grammatically correct?

Thanks!!

 

[tedmc]

No. 2 is correct as it comes under the third conditional(if +past perfect, ...would have + past participle).

 

[Matthew Wai]

The 2nd conditional: 'If I had an investor, I would have to pay them back.'
The 3rd conditional: 'If I had had an investor, I would have had to pay them back.'

 

[Rover_KE]

No sentence is grammatically correct without a final punctuation mark.

 

[chameleon82]

The 2nd conditional: 'If I had an investor, I would have to pay them back.'
The 3rd conditional: 'If I had had an investor, I would have had to pay them back.'

I think the 2nd conditional sentence sounds more logical and easy to use. Although, 3rd conditional sentence is grammatically correct but it sounds a little awkward. Which one would you prefer to use while speaking?

 

[Matthew Wai]

The 2nd refers to the present/future, while the 3rd refers to the past.
They have different meanings.

 

[GoesStation]

The 2nd conditional: 'If I had an investor, I would have to pay them back.'
The 3rd conditional: 'If I had had an investor, I would have had to pay them back.'

I think the 2nd conditional sentence sounds more logical and easy to use. Although, 3rd conditional sentence is grammatically correct but it sounds a little awkward. Which one would you prefer to use while speaking?

Both tenses are common. We use the right one for the situation. In American English we usually use contractions in the past perfect version in normal speech: If I'd had an investor, I would've had to pay them back. We don't contract the past perfect, and emphasize the first "had", when we want to emphasize that we did not, in fact, have an investor: If I had had an investor ....

 

[Tarheel]

1. "If I had an investor, I would have to pay him back"

You must be thinking about a creditor. A creditor is somebody you owe money to. An investor is part owner of a company and is paid from the proceeds of that company.