The KUAT English question with no 'if' in it

The question with no “if”

___ the committee received the revised figures earlier, the report ___ before the deadline.

A) Had / would have been completed
B) Had / would be completed
C) If / will be completed
D) Having / had been completed

Read the sentence again. There is no if, but it is still a conditional sentence.

That is not a typo. It is the point of the question.

In formal English, if can sometimes be omitted. When that happens, the word order changes.

Compare these two sentences:

If the committee had received the figures earlier…
Had the committee received the figures earlier…

They mean the same thing. In the second sentence, the auxiliary had moves in front of the subject the committee. This is called inversion.

Which conditional is it?

Look at the pattern:

Had + subject + past participle

This is the third conditional. It describes a past situation that did not happen. The committee did not receive the revised figures early.

In the standard third-conditional pattern tested here, the result clause is:

would have + past participle

So the full sentence is:

Had the committee received the revised figures earlier, the report would have been completed before the deadline.

Answer: A.

Why is B tempting?

B gets the opening right: Had the committee received… But it finishes with would be completed, which belongs to the standard second-conditional pattern.

Compare:

• Second conditional — unreal present or future: If I had more time, I would study another subject.
• Third conditional — unreal past: If I had studied earlier, I would have finished on time.

This question starts in the past, so it must stay in the past.

C does not match the conditional pattern required by the sentence. D also fails because Having cannot be placed before the subject in this structure.

What to remember in the exam

When Had, Were, or Should comes before the subject in a formal conditional sentence, if may have been omitted. Put the hidden if back in your mind, identify the conditional, and then choose the matching result form.

That turns a confusing sentence into a ten-second question.