Sentence/ explanation

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Sentence/ explanation
Message from suhasini posted on 29-12-2016 at 16:44:46 (D | E | F)
Hello,
Could you explain this sentence,please?
Thanks in advance for any help.

"Had it not been for his friend,he wouldn't have got a job."
I could understand that he wouldn't have got a job but in spite of my tries,I couldn't understand that 'had it not been for his friend'.

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Edited by lucile83 on 29-12-2016 21:32

Re: Sentence/ explanation from lucile83, posted on 29-12-2016 at 21:51:00 (D | E)
Hello,
Here are 2 links:
Link

Conditionals with inversions
In conditional sentences we can sometimes replace the 'if' with an inversion:
Had I known it would be so difficult I would never have enrolled.

Link

2:We can use inversion instead of 'if' in conditionals with 'had' 'were' and 'should'. This is quite formal:
Normal conditional: If I had been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
Conditional with inversion: Had I been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
Normal conditional: If we had arrived sooner, we could have prevented this tragedy!
Conditional with inversion: Had we arrived sooner, we could have prevented this tragedy!

Re: Sentence/ explanation from suhasini, posted on 30-12-2016 at 05:02:03 (D | E)
Hello Lucile,
Thank you so much,
~~Did you not tell~~ Had you not told me,I wouldn't ~~understand~~ have understood that sentence, but inversion is difficult to ~~speak~~ use and study.

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Edited by lucile83 on 30-12-2016 07:15

Re: Sentence/ explanation from suhasini, posted on 30-12-2016 at 11:23:26 (D | E)
Hello Lucile,
Oh! I did mistake,I just tried that why do I not use past simple instead of past perfect tense.
What about this sentence?
Not until you told me about my mistake did I really belive
It was wrong.

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