[Grammar] If something would've happened to him.

[beachboy]

I don't know what I would've done if something would've happened to him.

Netflix, Virgin River, third season, episode 4. Is the if clause right? I would've said "if something had happened to him".

 

[Rover_KE]

I would've said "... if something had happened to him".

So would I.

 

[GoesStation]

Netflix, Virgin River, third season, episode 4. Is the if clause right? I would've said "if something had happened to him".

Your version is grammatically correct. Many Americans use the version in the program. Learners shouldn't do that.

 

[emsr2d2]

This is one of the most clear-cut differences between BrE and AmE.

BrE: I wish I had won the lottery.
AmE: I wish I would've won the lottery.

BrE: I would've known that if someone had told me.
AmE: I would've known that if someone would've told me.

I don't know if any regions of the US use the BrE version but I don't know of any regions of the UK that use the AmE version.

 

[Rover_KE]

I hear it occasionally in BE, and put it down to the users having been influenced by the dialogue in American films, books and TV shows.

 

[5jj]

Forms such as If I'd've known that are not uncommon in BrE. (The 've is sometime written as of. ) The stressed version of this, If I had've known that shows that people think of the 'd as a contraction of had rather than of would. Huddleston and Pullum (2002,151,752) tell us that These variants are increasingly common in informal speech, but are generally regarded as non-standard.

 

[GoesStation]

This is one of the most clear-cut differences between BrE and AmE.

BrE: I wish I had won the lottery.
AmE: I wish I would've won the lottery.

BrE: I would've known that if someone had told me.
AmE: I would've know that if someone would've told me.

I don't know if any regions of the US use the BrE version but I don't know of any regions of the UK that use the AmE version.

The versions you've listed as BrE are the only really "correct" versions in American English, too. Nevertheless, many Americans use the ones you've marked as AmE.