How to use Past Conditional in "It would have been better if my brother had died rather than struck a bargain in the red desert"?

Question

I'm not sure if there's a better way to say this:

It would have been better if my brother had died rather than struck a bargain in the red desert.

Am I using that right? Ugh!

Help me please. This is the first line of my story and my critique group is arguing about which sentence is correct.

I want to correct it to "It would have been better if my brother had died rather than strike a bargain in the red desert," but I don't know the grammatical reason for changing the tense to the present, so I could be wrong. — Peter Shor, Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 2:06
What is the other version of the sentence involved in this argument? — Tinfoil Hat, Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 2:28
There's another question about rather than which may help with the tense - it says "rather than" must be followed by the "uninflected base form or the present participle" of the verb. — Stuart F, Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 9:15
If it's not answered by the above linked question, you should edit the question to express exactly which part of the sentence you're having trouble with, and what alternatives you are considering, and why. — Stuart F, Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 9:18
It may be more formally correct to say "strike", but I think many people will say "struck" because they're thinking in the past tense. — Barmar, Commented Oct 9, 2023 at 16:47

Robbie Goodwin · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-28 20:35:48Z

1

'It would have been better if my brother had died, rather than striking a bargain…'

'It would have been better if my brother had died, rather than having struck a bargain…'

Turn it round and consider what your brother was doing at the of his dying, and what made any connection relevant.

He died after/before/while striking a bargain…

He died after/before having struck a bargain…

answered Oct 28, 2023 at 20:35

Robbie Goodwin

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