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Tinanam0102 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

"How did I miss / could I have missed your massages?"

Hi teachers,

Could I know the difference between "How did I miss your massages?" and "How could I have missed your massages?"?

The present tense means exactly that I missed them, but the "could + have missed" refer to an event in the past that might or might not happen. How to understand this?

Thank you.

Regards,

Tinanam
  

Top answer

Be careful, Tinanam-- I think you mean ' messages '. Yes, you have the right understanding of the verbs. The conditional leaves open the possiblity that it was not the speaker's fault-- perhaps the messages never arrived -- or that s/he is unsure of his/her ability to locate messages.

— Mister Micawber

  • Be careful, Tinanam-- I think you mean ' messages '.
  • Yes, you have the right understanding of the verbs.
  • The conditional leaves open the possiblity that it was not the speaker's fault-- perhaps the messages never arrived -- or that s/he is unsure of his/her ability to locate messages.
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6 Answers
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Be careful, Tinanam-- I think you mean 'messages'.

Yes, you have the right understanding of the verbs. The conditional leaves open the possiblity that it was not the speaker's fault-- perhaps the messages never arrived -- or that s/he is unsure of his/her ability to locate messages.
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tinanam0102"How did I miss your messages?" ... "How could I have missed your messages?
In the first case the speaker acknowledges that he missed the messages (but he does not know how it happened).

In the second case there are at least two interpretations
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Dear Mister Micawber, CalifJim,

I apologize for my wrong spelling. I'll be more careful next time.

Could I know if "How did I possibly miss your messages" basically have the same interpretations as "How could I have missed your messages"?

Thank you.

Regards,

Tinanam
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tinanam0102Could I know if "How did I possibly miss your messages" basically have the same interpretations as "How could I have missed your messages"?
How did I possibly ... ? is not idiomatic, so it is not very likely that you will ever hear that. The idiomatic group is How could I possibly have ...?
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Dear CalifJim,

Thank you so much for your help with this topic.

Regards,

Tinanam
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tinanam0102Dear CalifJim,

Thank you so much for your help with this topic.

Regards,

Tinanam

No problem.
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