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Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

Could

They were playing carefully because they could lose the match.
Meanng:
They were playing carefully because there was a chance of their losing the match.
  

Top answer

" The verb tense needs to agree with the rest of the sentence. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with using "could" (but it should be "could have lost" so it matches the past tense of the verb).

— Chameleon

  • " The verb tense needs to agree with the rest of the sentence.
  • Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with using "could" (but it should be "could have lost" so it matches the past tense of the verb).
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6 Answers
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"They were playing carefully because they could have lost the match."

The verb tense needs to agree with the rest of the sentence. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with using "could" (but it should be "could have lost" so it matches the past tense of the verb).
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"They were playing carefully because they could have lost the match."

But doesn't it imply that they did not lose the match? What if the speaker doesn't know what the outcome of the match was?

1-When I left, they were playing carefully because they could lose the match.
2-When I left, they were playing carefully because they knew they could lose the match.
3-When I
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' they could have lost the match ' means they have already won it.
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That was my point. They could have drawn though!!
"They could have lost the match. " in this context implies that they did NOT lose it. They either won, or drew, or may-be the match was cancelled due to bad weather ...
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It looks to me like the predicate doesn't agree. I guess you are right though. But first you are talking in the past perfect continuous, then you switch to present. I know it sounds right, but is it?
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I think that whl626 and azz are right here, so stick with what they said. You can't really use present tense for the right hand side because that construction is reserved for "known truth"s, which this isn't.

Rommie.
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