He would never have asked her out on a date if she ______ him first. (to kiss)
Select one:
A. didn't kiss
B. will not kiss
C. hadn't kissed
Answer (1)
In this question, we are dealing with conditional sentences in English, specifically with mixed conditional sentences. Conditional sentences often express a condition and a result, and they can talk about past, present, or future possibilities or hypothetical scenarios.
The sentence in question looks at a hypothetical past event that affects a potential outcome in the past as well. For example:
'He would never have asked her out on a date if she ______ him first.'
To express this idea correctly, we need to use the past perfect tense for the condition (in the 'if' clause), because we are talking about a specific past action that did not happen.
Let's examine the options: a. didn't kiss - This uses the simple past, which is incorrect for this type of conditional. b. will not kiss - This uses the future simple tense, which is not correct as it does not refer to the past. c. hadn't kissed - This uses the past perfect tense, which is the correct choice for expressing an unreal past condition.
Therefore, the correct answer is option c: hadn't kissed. The sentence should read:
'He would never have asked her out on a date if she hadn't kissed him first.'
This implies that she actually did kiss him, and because of that, he asked her out. It highlights the conditional relationship between the two actions in the past.
