Could have imagined

Question

Hello...In the below, can the underlined be changed to could imagine, without changing the meaning?What I've found was much more than what I could have imagined.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

pructus
In the sentence below, can the underlined be changed to could imagine without changing the meaning?

What I've found was much more than what I could have imagined.

No, the meaning would change a little.

When you imagine things, you imagine them before you actually see them. So if you've already found something, the imagining happened before you found it. That's expressed with "could have imagined". The idea is "could have imagined about it before I found it", and that's what you want to say.

As I read it, just "could imagine" messes up the time sequence a bit. For me, "You found much more than the amount you can imagine in the future" is more or less the image that comes to mind.

That said, if you use "could imagine" instead of "could have imagined", people will understand what you mean. They'll fix it so the time sequence is correct in their brains.

CJ

Could have imagined

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