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Hotmale Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Could+perfect infinitive

Hi,

could you, please, have a look at how I transformed the original sentence, using could+perfect infinitive? Are these sentences correct?
I've got doubts about the interrogative sentence.

1) It is possible that he was injured in the car crash.

a) He could have been injured in the car crash.

b) Could he have been injured in the car crash?

or?

Could have he been injured in the car crash?

Thank you
  

Top answer

A & B are grammatically correct but B is weird in that the answer is always yes, of course he could have been injured in the crash!

— Shawn79

  • A & B are grammatically correct but B is weird in that the answer is always yes, of course he could have been injured in the crash!
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7 Answers
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A & B are grammatically correct but B is weird in that the answer is always yes, of course he could have been injured in the crash! Emotion: smile
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Yeah, I know Emotion: smile But that's the exercise I'm doing.

Thank you, Shawn
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If this is a transformation exercise, then I don't think the question form ( b ) is appropriate, since ( 1 ) is an affirmative statement.
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I didn't recognize it as a multiple choice exercise question at the time I first replied. Listen to Mister Micawber, or you might get that one wrong.
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Hotmalea) He could have been injured in the car crash.b) Could he have been injured in the car crash?
OK.
HotmaleCould have he been injured in the car crash?
Not OK. The subject always changes places with the first verb in the verb phrase, which is 'could' in this case.

CJ
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Shawn79A & B are grammatically correct but B is weird in that the answer is always yes, of course he could have been injured in the crash!
I don't think you're saying much more than that the truth value of

It may be the case that X

is always "true", regardless of what proposition is expressed by X.

It seems to me that this is
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CalifJim I didn't get the impression from the OP that it was a multiple choice question -- just an exercise to express the first statement as an assertion then as a question, using 'could have' in both.
Yes, I'm supposed to write affirmative and interrogative sentences
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