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Hachi8 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

present perfect tense

When you express a thing of the past with an auxiliary verb, for example "you need not have done it", this "have done" is same as present perfect??
  

Top answer

I'd say 'No'. Because the 'present perfect' represents something as either happened or not happened at an unspecified or unknown time before now. We need the 'have + a past participle' form with the modal - 'need' is also a modal verb, because there's no past forms, as ordinary verbs in English have, for them.

— Laborious

  • I'd say 'No'.
  • Because the 'present perfect' represents something as either happened or not happened at an unspecified or unknown time before now.
  • We need the 'have + a past participle' form with the modal - 'need' is also a modal verb, because there's no past forms, as ordinary verbs in English have, for them.
  • For ex there is no 'musted', 'shoulded', 'mighted', or 'mayed'.
  • 'Need' is also an ordinary verb and has present, past, and past participle forms.
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9 Answers
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I'd say 'No'. Because the 'present perfect' represents something as either happened or not happened at an unspecified or unknown time before now. We need the 'have + a past participle' form with the modal - 'need' is also a modal verb, because there's no past forms, as ordinary verbs in English have, for them. For ex there is no 'musted', 'shoulded', 'mighted', or 'mayed'. 'Need' is also an ordina
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hachi8this "have done" is same as present perfect??
It is the modal perfect.

Here is a reference for the modal forms:
http://www.englishpage.com/modals/modalforms.html
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Thank you!!

Now I don't think the "have done" in "need not have done" means "present perfect" anymore. However, I'm wondering if there would be any cases that "Modal (not) + have done " could be ok to be interpreted as "a meaning(s) of Modal verb + present perfect". For example, "You should have done it." ?/? "It is highly expected (by someone) that you have done it(, but you haven't done
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hachi8"You should have done it."
This means that the action didn't really happen, i.e., you didn't really do that thing, but It would have been a good thing If you had done that. You were supposed to do it, but you didn't.

You could say that "You should have done it" = It is expected by the speaker that the other person does something in the p
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hachi8I don't think the "have done" in "need not have done" means "present perfect" anymore.
No.

I need not have done it = I didn't have to do it. = There was no need for me to do it.
hachi8You should have done it.
= It [was / would have been] advisable for you to do it (but you didn't).
= It [was / would have b
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Hi teacher,

By saying It would have been [advisible / a good idea / the right thing ] for you do it, aren't you suggesting that it wasn't, actually, advisible or a good idea or the right thing for you do it?

Thank you.
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You could say that "You should have done it" = It is expected by the speaker that the other person does something in the past, but he/she [fails to / doesn't] do that (in the past).
I'm sorry, but would that above mean I could ALSO say that~???
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hachi8You could say that "You should have done it" = It is expected by the speaker that the other person does something in the past, but he/she [fails to / doesn't] do that (in the past).I'm sorry, but would that above mean I could ALSO say that~???
No, not actually. I was just trying to explain what meaning "You should have done it" conveys. It's not p
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LaboriousBy saying It would have been [advisible / a good idea / the right thing ] for you do it, aren't you suggesting that it wasn't, actually, advisible or a good idea or the right thing for you do it?
No. It seems that way if you analyze it in a theoretical sense, but to my ear it doesn't work that way in this case. The suggestion is that something in t
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