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Hosof Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Has been or Would Have Been?

I just read an article from Birmingham Mail through msn.com and came up a questions about a phrase...

To begin, the article is about people that were in a flight to Madeira island and weren't able to land. The airline, easyJet, said: "(...)easyJet would like to apologise and understands how disappointing it would have been for passengers.(...)"

Questions:First of all, haven't the event already occured? Yes, so why say "would have been", shoudn't the correct be "understands how disappointing it has been", for example?


Second of all, accordingly to your kind answer, why is it how you are proposing?

  

Top answer

hosof First of all, haven't the event already occured? Yes, so why say "would have been", shoudn't the correct be "understands how disappointing it has been The airline company only says what it thinks is a definite possibility in the past—the passengers feeling disappointed. It would be appropriate to use "has been" only if the passengers themselves had said that it was disappointing to them.

— Vsuresh

  • hosof First of all, haven't the event already occured?
  • Yes, so why say "would have been", shoudn't the correct be "understands how disappointing it has been The airline company only says what it thinks is a definite possibility in the past—the passengers feeling disappointed.
  • It would be appropriate to use "has been" only if the passengers themselves had said that it was disappointing to them.
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3 Answers
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hosofFirst of all, haven't the event already occured? Yes, so why say "would have been", shoudn't the correct be "understands how disappointing it has been

The airline company only says what it thinks is a definite possibility in the past—the passengers feeling disappointed.

It would be appropriate to use "has been" only if the passengers themselves h

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hosofwere in a flight

were on a flight

hosofMadeira island

Madeira https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

hosof
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By using "would have been", the airline is trying to distance itself from what happened and potentially from any associated legal liability or obligations.

If they had used "how disappointing it has been", they would have been admitting/acknowledging that those passengers were disappointed with (and inconvenienced by) what had happened.

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