Which is correct?

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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Lie.K.
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Which is correct?

Post by Lie.K. »

Hello :)

Would you look at the following sentence?

#1 I wish I could drive a car then.
I found this in the exercise. I think #1 should be #2 because there is "then."
#2 I wish I could have driven a car then.
I'll be happy to know the answer.

Thank you.
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Alan
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Post by Alan »

On the surface, it looks as if you are probably right, but it does rather depend on context: 'then' can refer to any time other than the present moment, even including future times, so we would have to first ascertain the exact reference of 'then' in context. If 'then' refers to some future (possibly even hypothetical) time, then the first sentence would be possible.
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