Breakdown of Om han hade ignorerat rådet, skulle han ha missat tillfället.
han
he
ha
to have
missa
to miss
om
if, whether
skulle
would
tillfället
the opportunity (occasion)
ignorera
to ignore
rådet
the advice
Questions & Answers about Om han hade ignorerat rådet, skulle han ha missat tillfället.
Why does the main clause start with skulle han instead of han skulle?
The entire om (if) clause acts as the first block of information in the sentence. Because Swedish follows the V2 rule (where the finite verb must come second), the main verb skulle must come immediately after the comma, pushing the subject han to the third position.
Why do we use the verb forms ignorerat and missat here?
In an unreal past conditional, you are talking about things that 'had' or 'would have' happened. The helper verbs hade (had) and ha (have) always force the main verb into its supinum form. Since ignorera and missa are regular Group 1 verbs, their supinum forms simply end in -t.
Could I drop the word om to say 'Had he ignored the advice...', just like in English?
Yes! Just like in English, you can drop om and swap the subject and verb to create a conditional clause. If you do this, the first part of the sentence becomes Hade han ignorerat rådet... and the rest of the sentence stays exactly the same.
Why do rådet and tillfället both end in -et or -t?
Both råd (advice) and tillfälle (opportunity) are neuter nouns, meaning they take the article ett. To say 'the advice' or 'the opportunity' in the definite form, you add the suffix -et (or just -t if the word already ends in a vowel, like tillfälle). Note that unlike in English, 'advice' is a countable noun in Swedish.
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