If Abraham Lincoln were born...

[vaibhavsharma1988]

Book- ManhattanGMAT prep-the new standard 4th edition
page no - 146 , verb tense,mood & voice problem set

question 19 : If Abraham Lincoln were born in Livonia, he cannot become the President of the United States.

solution(as in the book) : If Abraham Lincoln had been born in Livonia, he could not have become the President of the United States.

in this question both If...then clause are part of the underlined phrase. So how to decide which If..then Construction(given in the book)we have to use here. I mean when only If clause is underlined then we can change it according to the Then clause and vice versa but how to do that in this case.

[tim]

Fair enough. We changed both underlined parts because neither fit with the ancient nature of Abraham Lincoln and his presidency. We can certainly write sentences that keep either of the two underlined sentences intact (by bringing the scenario into the present day), but NOT BOTH because they are not compatible:

If i were late, i could not watch the opening credits.

If i am late, i cannot watch the opening credits.

[sharma.paresh]

About this construction i am very confused with the IF part changes that have been prescribed
As per my understanding hypothetical subjunctive construction is-
If/As If/As though...(Simple Past/were(to be)) ...then would/could...

I understand for the second part could not have become is fine but for the first part should we not use were born as is..?
had been born doesnt match anything about the hypothetical conjunction as it is a past perfect tense

[sharma.paresh]

ok i got it :)
this is the case that never happened
if past perfect then conditional perfect...

revise revise revise :)

[tim]

:)

[Jov]

If Abraham Lincoln were born in Livonia, he could not become the President of the United States.

I thought the answer of the question is this and I am not able to understand why it is wrong though it has given in the solution that
because he became president of the US, we can not use this construction. Please elaborate the solution.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

[tim]

I'm afraid I don't understand what your question is. Did the book not do a good job of explaining to you what the correct answer is? It may be that you are trying to over-analyze this situation when simply memorizing the correct construction might be more effective.