Is it a correct sentence

Question

You could/might have been holding me for five seconds but you didn't.

GPY · Accepted Answer

No. This is possible:

You could/might have held me for five seconds, but you didn't.

To determine which is more appropriate, or whether either correctly expresses what you intend to say, more context is needed, including more information about the sense in which "held" is used.

Tenjing · Answer

Thanks a lot, GPY. What about this one,
You could have been helping me while I was in the examination with you.(By cheating)

Grammarfreak · Answer

Before you ask the forum if your sentence is correct, perhaps you need to tell us what you intend to say. As it was written, your sentence doesn't make any sense. Modal perfect has a sense of assumption. How could X assumed that Y could have held X while X knew Y didn't do so?
Also, the way 'holding' is used in the sentence doesn't paint a clear picture. If I say he is holding a cup, you have a clear image of what he is doing. In your context, the image is not very clear. Am I holding you up, or holding you down, the meaning is not apparent.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

This is the progressive form:
You might have been holding me for five seconds but you weren't (holding me...).

And this is the simple form:
You might have held me for five seconds but you didn't (hold me...).

Tenjing · Answer

I think you had better learn English grammar. If you don't know what my sentences mean, you had better not reply, Grammarfreak.

GPY · Answer

tenjing Thanks a lot, GPY. What about this one,You could have been helping me while I was in the examination with you.(By cheating)

It is grammatical. Without more background knowledge about the context, the speaker's purpose in saying it is not clear.

CalifJim · Answer

tenjing You could/might have been holding me for five seconds but you ~~didn't~~ weren't.

This sentence is astonishingly strange, but after reading many of your other posts on the topics of interest to you lately, I think that you are trying to add things like "for five seconds" to justify the use of the continuous tenses that you put in most, if not all, of your examples. Your for-phrases of time are sometimes unnecessary, and they can make your sentences more awkward than they need to be. You can use continuous aspect without a for-phrase.

Frank might have been working in the garden.
You could have been doing the dishes.
Paul must have been sleeping.

To that I would add that you don't need an -ing form at all after modal verb phrases like could have been, might have been, and must have been. That is, you don't need to use continuous aspect. You have two other options available to you.

1. You can use a past participle instead, making a passive construction.

You might have been seen there last night.
Eva must have been invited to the party.
We could have been killed!

2. You can use an adjective or noun, as you do in "She was late" or "That is the boss".

Richard might have been late.
The door must have been open.
She could have been a doctor.

By trying some of these other patterns, as suggested above, you may be able to make even more sentences with "could/may/might/must have been". I hope you find my suggestions helpful.

CJ

Grammarfreak · Answer

tenjingI think you had better learn English grammar

I am quite sure of my grammar.

tenjingIf you don't know what my sentences mean, you had better not reply, Grammarfreak.

If I am not mistaken, I wasn't the only one who had questions about your sentence in one way or the other. The only difference was, I can't sugar coat something to make it sound right. Don't worry. I won't bother with your posts.

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