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AmmonJerro Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Complicated tense confusion

Hello

I've been watching news on Youtube and I heard the following sentence from a native speaker anchorwoman:

"What kind of diplomatic wrangling would had to have gone on behind the scenes for both sides to come to these agreements?"

My question is; I thought you couldn't follow the modal "would" with any past tense verb unless the modal "have" preceded the verb. How is this possible? Would "What kind of diplomatic wrangling would have had to have gone on" be the correct form here?

Please help me with reaching a clarification because this is really bugging me.

Thanks a lot

  

Top answer

" My question is; I thought you couldn't follow the modal "would" with any past tense verb unless the modal "have" preceded the verb. How is this possible? Would "What kind of diplomatic wrangling would have had to have gone on" be the correct form here?

— Clive

  • " My question is; I thought you couldn't follow the modal "would" with any past tense verb unless the modal "have" preceded the verb.
  • How is this possible?
  • Would "What kind of diplomatic wrangling would have had to have gone on" be the correct form here?
  • Yes.
  • The original text is incorrect.
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1 Answers
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I've been watching news on Youtube and I heard the following sentence from a native speaker anchorwoman:

"What kind of diplomatic wrangling would had to have gone on behind the scenes for both sides to come to these agreements?"

My question is; I thought you couldn't follow the modal "would" with any past tense verb unless the modal "have" preceded the verb. How is this possible? W

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