Question:medium

'If his latest movie had been a commercial success, the actor would have made enough money to sponsor his next movie.'
Based only on the above sentence, which one of the following statements is true?

Show Hint

This is a third conditional ("if + had, would have"); it means the event in the "if" clause did not actually happen.
Updated On: Aug 6, 2026
  • The actor will certainly sponsor his next movie.
  • His latest movie was a commercial success.
  • The actor made enough money from his latest movie.
  • His latest movie was not commercially successful.
Show Solution

The Correct Option is D

Solution and Explanation

The sentence follows the pattern "If + had + past participle, ... would have + past participle", which grammar calls the third conditional. This structure is only used to describe a past that did NOT actually happen, an imagined alternative to reality, so whatever sits in the "if" clause must be false in real life.

  1. The actor will certainly sponsor his next movie: this talks about a future certainty, but the given sentence only imagines a past that never occurred; it says nothing definite about what will happen going forward.
  2. His latest movie was a commercial success: this directly contradicts what a third conditional tells us, since the "if" clause describes something that was not actually true.
  3. The actor made enough money from his latest movie: this can only be true if the movie really was a commercial success, but we already know it was not, so this cannot be true either.
  4. His latest movie was not commercially successful: this is exactly the real-world fact that the third conditional points to, since the imagined "if it had been a success" case never actually happened.

Because "if X had happened, Y would have happened" always means X did not really happen, the true statement here is that the movie was not commercially successful.

Let's summarize:

  • "If + past perfect, would have + past participle" describes an unreal, imagined past.
  • Whatever sits inside that "if" clause is understood to be false in reality.

So the only statement definitely true is that his latest movie was not commercially successful.

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