The had + would have been form

Question

Hi, This is the sentence I have doubts about:

If she had passed the exam, she would have been working at the bank.

The writer wants to say that if she had passed, she would have got a job at the bank and worked there every day. But I feel the sentence really says that if she had passed the exam, she would have already had a history of working at the bank.

Could you please let me know what the sentence means, and maybe point me to a page somewhere that explains the grammar involved? Thanks, Srinivasa Iyer from India

Answer 1

The sentence "If she had passed the exam, she would have been working at the bank" means that if she had passed the exam, she would have gotten a job at the bank and would currently be employed there.

The sentence is in the third conditional form, which is used to talk about an unreal or hypothetical situation in the past and its imagined result. The structure of the third conditional is "If + past perfect, would/could/should + have + past participle."

In this sentence, "had passed" is the past perfect form of "pass," and "would have been working" is the conditional perfect form of "be working."

Therefore, the sentence implies that the person did not pass the exam, and as a result, did not get a job at the bank. It does not suggest that the person had any prior experience working at the bank.

I hope this helps clarify the meaning of the sentence!