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In an English text, I happened upon a sentence like the following.

____________ no money, I cannot buy that lovely house. A. Having B. If having

which of those is a correct answer to the sentence?

I believe that A and B might be correct. one(A) is an adjective phrase which describes the subject of the main clause. The other(B) is a introductory clause.

But according to text book, the answer to the question is A

Why isn't the B correct? please, let me know it. is there anyone who explains it to me?

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  • Only A. is correct. "Having no money" is an adjunct of implicated reason: it can be interpreted as giving a reason for the matrix situation, i.e. "I cannot buy that lovely house because I have no money". Note that it's not an adjective phrase but a gerund-participial clause. The preposition "if" in B. marks it as a conditional, which is not acceptable here with a gerund-participial clause as its complement; instead the finite "If I have no money" is required.
    – BillJ
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 12:17

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Having no money, I cannot buy that house means that I have no money and therefore I cannot buy the house. If doesn't come into it, therefore B is not the right answer.

Of course you can say If I had the money I could buy the house, but that would be a different sentence!

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  • Thanks. I have a question of your post. you said that if doesn't come into it, therefore B is not the right answer. I can't understand it. please, explain it easily to me!
    – bak1936
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 23:13
  • I don't know how I can explain it any more simply. Having no money means that the actual situation is that the speaker has no money. If refers to a hypothetical (imaginary) situation.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 8:04
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____________ no money, I cannot buy that lovely house.

Only A. is correct. "Having no money" is an adjunct of implicated reason: it can be interpreted as giving a reason for the matrix situation, i.e. "I cannot buy that lovely house because I have no money". Note that it's not an adjective phrase but a gerund-participial clause.

The preposition "if" in B. marks it as a conditional construction, which is not acceptable here with a gerund-participial clause as its complement; instead the finite PP "If I have no money" is required.

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  • thanks. by the way, I have never heard that if is a preposition before, and you are right. It is a participal clause, but I search for it, I found a participal clause after a conjunction. so If having might be correct. If having no money means If I have no money. I think there is a grammatical reason why B is incorrect in a situation.
    – bak1936
    Commented Oct 6, 2021 at 23:04
  • @bak1936 It's ungrammatical in your example because "if" requires a finite clause as complement.
    – BillJ
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 7:02
  • it's a little strange. I found that a subordinate clause of if can be used with a non-finite clause. According to a dictionary, they say that we often use non-finite clauses after some subordinating conjunctions like after, although, though and if:
    – bak1936
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 8:53
  • Yes, but not in a conditional construction like B, as I've already told you twice!
    – BillJ
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 9:03
  • I'm sorry. I disagree with you. I show you an example from a dictionary. The proposal, if accepted by Parliament, will mean fundamental changes to the education system. Does it look the same like B?
    – bak1936
    Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 9:31

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