IPMAT Indore 2022 · Verbal Ability · Question 8

The error: a broken third conditional. The if-clause is

“If I had known…”

which is the past-perfect form that defines a third conditional — a hypothetical about the past that did not happen. Its main clause must take

\text{would have}+\text{past participle}

The original has “could drive”, a present/future form, which clashes with “yesterday”.

The fix. “…I would have driven you there.”

Why the others fail:

(a) should have driven — grammatically well-formed, but should have expresses obligation or regret (“I ought to have”), not the hypothetical consequence the conditional requires. The sentence is about what would have happened given knowledge, not about duty.

(c) would drive — present conditional; mismatched with “had known” and “yesterday”.

(d) should drive — wrong tense and wrong modal.

Answer: Option 2

Shortcut. Match the halves of the conditional and the question answers itself:

\text{If}+\text{had}+{V}_{3}\ldots \text{would have}+{V}_{3}

“If I had known” demands “would have driven” — scan the options for that exact string.

The real discrimination is (a) versus (b), and it is about meaning, not form. Would have = the hypothetical outcome; should have = regret about an obligation. The sentence supplies a condition, so it needs the outcome.

Note that “yesterday” is doing real work — it fixes the time as past and eliminates both present-tense options at a glance.