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I have a sentence which would say

  • Had I won this lottery money 10 years before, I would have saved my mother from illness.
  • If WhatsApp was invented 30 years before, I would have saved a lot of money in ISD calls.

These are presumed past. I read about Future 2 which builds sentence for presumed future.

To build these kind of sentences which past form should we use? I could not relate Perfekt, Präteritum or Plusquamperfekt.

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You need the subjunctive, in this case the Konjunktiv II:

  • Hätte ich vor 10 Jahren im Lotto gewonnen, hätte ich meine Mutter vor Krankheit bewahrt.
  • Wäre WhatsApp 30 Jahre früher erfunden worden, hätte ich viel Geld für Ferngespräche gespart.
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    how to build sentence for the "would have". This is the main area I need help. – Sujatha Kannan Oct 8 '18 at 9:05
  • Thanks for your answer. Sure this gave me a new idea. – Sujatha Kannan Oct 8 '18 at 9:20
  • German differs here from English in that it uses the same verb form for both clauses (Konjunktiv II). – RHa Oct 8 '18 at 9:31
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    "Vor Krankheit bewahren". Also, in the original answer I'd translate "30 years before" to "30 Jahre früher". – Thorsten Westheider Oct 8 '18 at 11:01
  • "Vor Krankheit schützen" is probably the most common term. – philerr Jan 18 '19 at 11:33

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