Would be destroyed or would have been destroyed

01:01 Dec 30, 2020 

Both can be legitimate/correct, even if one may be more likely.

16:12 Nov 27, 2020 

If firefighters didn't get there on time, the building would be destroyed

If firefighters hadn't got there on time, the building would have been destroyed

11:25 Nov 27, 2020 

Thank you. Hopefully your confirmation will bring this to a close and e-mails will stop.

11:15 Nov 27, 2020 

so only 2. is correct here
https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/third-conditional.ht...

I thought Kudoz was supposed to be about difficult translations not about basic English grammar?

10:14 Nov 27, 2020 

In practice, the first suggestion will never look good in print, even if it gets said from time to time.

09:52 Nov 27, 2020 

I put a confidence level of 4 thinking the question might lead to discussion. I was right. Keep up the good work my man.

09:46 Nov 27, 2020 

I can't really agree with your statement: "would be destroyed" in the specific construction as given here could only be correct if 'destroyed' were taken as an adjective being used to describe the current condition of the building now — but such a construction would sound awkward and unnatural in EN here, as the first "had not arrived" invites an immediate reading with a past participle.
Were it to have been "...the building would be in ruins / blackened / weakened", then that reading would work; but the primary force of 'destroyed' here is always going to be as a past participle.

09:16 Nov 27, 2020 

I think that Yassine's proposals are both correct, but
1- "Would be destroyed" refers to the possible present status of the building, now it would be destroyed
2- "Would have been destroyed" refers more to the action resulting from the firefighters not getting there in time, when the fire took place: the fire would have destroyed the building.

09:07 Nov 27, 2020 

Here, it's a simple matter of following the sequence of tenses: the 'had not got there' requires a matching past 'have been destroyed'— the 'would' is a red herring here.

09:03 Nov 27, 2020 

Mixed Conditional

It is possible for the two parts of a conditional sentence to refer to different times, and the resulting sentence is a "mixed conditional" sentence. There are two types of mixed conditional sentence.

https://www.ef.com/ca/english-resources/english-grammar/mixe...

09:00 Nov 27, 2020 

If + past perfect ---- present conditional? I think the statement has a relationship with the present since its effect on the building has to do with the present and future -- the building hasn't been destroyed yet. What do you think of my explanation?