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Hans51 Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

He might have studied English since 2010

I have learned that auxiliary verbs like can, may ,etc and have p.p like might have p.p can be used in conditionals and past guess.

For example,

1. I might have studied English harder if I had been smarter. [Conditional]

2. It might have been true. [Past guess]

And I was wondering if present perfect tense, which implies happenings from the past to the present can be used with auxiliary verbs?

He has studied English since 2010. [truth] [ so he has studied English for 7 years until now]

He might have studied English since 2010 [truth but I am not sure] [ It seems like he has studied English for 7 years until now but I am not 100% sure of it]

So my questions is that might have p.p structures can be interpreted in three ways?

Thank you so much as usual in advance and I hope my question is clear.
  

Top answer

"He might have studied English since 2010" is possible, though it seems ambiguous whether it means continuously since 2010 or one one or more discrete occasions. If you mean the former, I would consider using "He might have been studying English since 2010" instead. I don't understand "truth but I am not sure"; it seems contradictory.

— GPY

  • "He might have studied English since 2010" is possible, though it seems ambiguous whether it means continuously since 2010 or one one or more discrete occasions.
  • If you mean the former, I would consider using "He might have been studying English since 2010" instead.
  • I don't understand "truth but I am not sure"; it seems contradictory.
  • g.
  • "He might have been young, but he was very smart" (normally means that he was young).
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4 Answers
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"He might have studied English since 2010" is possible, though it seems ambiguous whether it means continuously since 2010 or one one or more discrete occasions. If you mean the former, I would consider using "He might have been studying English since 2010" instead.

I don't understand "truth but I am not sure"; it seems contradictory.

Incidentally, if you are cataloguing uses of
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Hans51And I was wondering if present perfect tense, which implies happenings from the past to the present can be used with auxiliary verbs?
You mean 'modal verbs', not 'auxiliary verbs'. The auxiliary verb "have" obviously can indicate the present perfect; that's how you form that tense.
________

The answer is "yes", you can use that gramm
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CalifJimI think Anna must have lived here 10 years by now.
Can the above sentence be replaced by "l presume Anna have lived here 10 years by now"?
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Anonymous CalifJimI think Anna must have lived here 10 years by now.Can the above sentence be replaced by "l presume Anna have lived here 10 years by now"?
No, not that sentence, but if you change "have" to "has", it's OK.

CJ
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