third conditional & perfect past
I know in order to have perfect past we must have a simple past too.
but in conditional type 3. I cannot see any simple past.
"If she had gone to university, she would have found a really good job."
The past perfect is 'If she had gone to university'
but I wonder where is the simple past.
and what is the tense of this sentence
"she would have found a really good job."
Solution 1:
If she had gone to university, she would have found a really good job.
This is what is known as a type 3 conditional, which is used when the situation is hypothetical and in the past; also, the main clause ("she would have found a really good job") was probable but did not actually happen.
Examples:
If I had fallen, I could have broken my arm. [perfect conditional]
and
If I had fallen, I would have been flying for a few seconds. [progressive perfect conditional]
The "if" clause uses the past perfect tense, and the main clause uses the perfect conditional or progressive perfect conditional tense. The perfect/progressive perfect tenses are made conditional by adding a modal auxiliary verb (such as "would") to the main verb.
One should not use the simple past for the main clause in a type 3 conditional sentence; instead, one should use the perfect conditional or progressive perfect conditional tenses.