I'm trying to make a sentence. However, I'm a little bit confused about the right tense here.
How you can find a solution if you hadn't understood the problem.
It should be written in the past perfect because you have to understand the problem first then you can find a solution for that.
How you can find a solution if you didn't understand the problem.
Or should be written in the simple past form, just because!
how you can find a solution if you don't understand the problem.
Or even simple present because it is a fact.
Please let me know if there is a better way to rewrite this sentence.
Best Answer
These are conditions:
each referring to a particular time.
The present tense can be used to refer to general truths (or questions that resolve to a general truth):
The past perfect would be used in conjunction with another past tense, because you're emphasizing a sequence of events in the past:
You could also ask:
using the present perfect and the simple past.
The problem-solving there is understood to be current or very recent, and the lack of understanding predated the solving.