Korean Job Discussion Forums

[brento1138]

I'm not sure if one, or both of these sentences are correct...

A) If you had been reluctant to give up what you had because you did not want to suffer losses...

B) If you had been reluctant to give up what you have because you do not want to suffer losses...

Are they both correct?

[lichtarbeiter]

[bianca_dee]

It's almost fine. Just a minor correction for parallelism of the sentences.

A) If you had been reluctant to give up what you had because you did not want to suffer losses...

B) If you have been reluctant to give up what you have because you do not want to suffer losses...

I guess that's it.

[toph]

Well, I would take out the word "because." Your sentence/story already conveys an implication by starting with "If you had/have..." so the word "because" is unnecessary. It's redundant, because by saying "If" you're setting up the story without the need for "because." But, you can replace "because" with "then." This would make more sense, and would change the sentence to a cause-effect story. Which follows the flow of the sentence anyway, because you begin with "If" so you can just make it an if-then sentence.

So I would write it like this:

1. If you (have/had) been reluctant to give up what you had, then you did not want to suffer losses...
Depending on your meaning, "have/had" can be used in this sentence. Have, if the person is STILL reluctant. Had, if the person is no longer reluctant.

2. If you (have/had) been reluctant to give up what you have, then you did not want to suffer losses...
"Have/had" can be used interchangeably here as well, depending on your meaning.