"If I didn't have" vs. "if I hadn't had"
Can someone please tell me if these sentences are correct? I prefer number one. Here I am trying to talk about a past condition that didn't actually happen because the person had the example sentences and they did understand.
- If I didn't have the example sentences, I wouldn't have understood the text.
- If I hadn't had the example sentences, I wouldn't have understood the text.
If you are talking about an event or state that didn’t happen, the if clause needs the past perfect construction, and the main clause needs to consist of would have + past participle. This is sometimes known to foreign learners of English as the Third Conditional. Such a sentence imagines something that might have happened, but didn’t, and it is now too late to do anything about it.
What this means for your examples is that the second would be the normal way of putting it. The if clause consists of the past perfect hadn’t had and the main clause consists of wouldn’t have followed by the past participle understood. If you find this difficult to follow, it may become a little clearer if you make the sentence positive: If I had had the example sentences, I would have understood the text.
If I didn't have the example sentences..., using the present 'have', must refer to the present, and so would have to go on ...I wouldn't understand the text. If referring to the past, you must use the past form had, as in example 2.