[Grammar] “If I have known” correct?

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Pami619

Member
Joined
May 28, 2018
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Bulgarian
Home Country
Bulgaria
Current Location
Spain
I’m currently going to English courses.
Today I had the occasion to make a very grave mistake.
I literally had to translate the sentence from Spanish to English.
So I was competing another student with the same phrase.

He wrote: “I had known, If I would have come.”
It looked really bad to me but the teacher said he was correct.
As to my sentence: “If I have known, I would have come.”
Which he corrected me and said “had known”.
I initially thought of “had” but for some reason I wrote “have”, it maybe has to do with the English spoken amongst English speakers, not the grammatical English itself.

What is your opinion on that, is my sentence deemed correct?
 
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No, your sentence is not correct, and native speakers do not say it. "If I had known, I would have come" is correct.
Also, the other student's sentence is worse than yours. It's meaningless.
You can also say, "Had I known, I would have come."
 
No, your sentence is not correct, and native speakers do not say it. "If I had known, I would have come" is correct.
Also, the other student's sentence is worse than yours. It's meaningless.
You can also say, "Had I known, I would have come."

Yeah, I knew it was “had” but I wrote “have” for some reason.
Was just curious to know if it can be used without problem.
Thanks.
 
I wouldn't call your mistake very grave. A native speaker wouldn't use the tense you chose, but you would probably be understood. Learners make a lot of tense errors; many non-native English speakers live in Anglophone countries for decades without mastering this aspect of the language and nevertheless make themselves understood.
 
I wouldn't call your mistake very grave. A native speaker wouldn't use the tense you chose, but you would probably be understood. Learners make a lot of tense errors; many non-native English speakers live in Anglophone countries for decades without mastering this aspect of the language and nevertheless make themselves understood.

I know it’s used with “had” but for some reason I wrote “have”.
Sometimes, I might use the correct sentence without even noticing.
I’d keep in mind that using “have” in this tense isn’t correct.

Thanks.
 
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