If I hadn’t been late, I would not be unemployed. ([color=green]correct) = mixed time conditional
If I hadn’t been late, I wouldn’t be fired.([color=red]incorrect) = mixed time conditional
Hello,
Would you please explain their difference to me? Why 1 is correct but 2 is not? They have the same structure. Then what’s the difference? Is that because 2 is passive?
The problem in (2) is the word ‘fire’. The verb “to fire” is an informal expression…and there is no adjective form e.g.[color=brown] ‘a fired worker’ (INCORRECT)
In (2), “… I would not be fired”, ‘would be’ is the verb, and ‘fired’ is in the position of trying to be an adjective. e.g.
He is clever.
He is a clever person.
That is why ‘unemployed’, which is an adjective, works, and ‘fired’ doesn’t.
In addition to Bazza’s explanation, it is possible to make sentence 2 correct by changing the tense of the verb ‘will be’:
If I hadn’t been late, I wouldn’t have been fired. (correct)