Tenses after "would have thought" always in the past?

Question

Hi. I would appreciated it if you could help me. I think the word "thought" puts whatever related to the person who did thinking in the past tense mode, eg, "He thought the answer was correct."

Could that also apply to the sentences containing the phrase "would have thought"?

eg,

He would have thought that the answer was (is - possible?) correct.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Here's what you need:

He thought that the answer was correct.

Same for would have thought.

He would have thought that the answer was correct.

I would not use is in either case.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Thank you. Let me be clear on some things. Please help me.

Are you saying that what follows the phrase "would have thought" is always (perhaps - almost always?) in the past tense? If that is, do you say the same for the phrase "would have felt"?

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousAre you saying that what follows the phrase "would have thought" is always (perhaps - almost always?) in the past tense?

Past or past perfect most of the time, I imagine. But then I have not heard every sentence in the world, so I have no way of guessing. I suppose someone might be able to construct something with various other tenses. All I'm saying is that you're pretty safe from grammatical error if you use the past there. Same for "would have felt". In these cases your best bet is to post specific sentences and ask about those. Nobody can quote you rules that "always work".

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much for your help. I think you were the person who told us that the words "thought", "felt", and "knew" are always followed by a past tense (I am not quoting exactly since I don't have what you said in front of me, but gave you what I roughly recall what you might have said.)

I think from what you said in this thread regarding what I have asked, I think it is safe to conclude that I will encounter a past tense after the phrases "would have thought" and "would have felt" most of the time in the writing world, and it also would be safe to include the phrase "would have known" to it (if my memory serves me right - see the previous paragrah).

As for the other words like "suggest" or "surmise" (there seems to be too many to list here), would you say a variety of tense options are available depending on the context of the sentences or what you want to say?

eg,

He would have suggested that the theory still holds true today.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI think you were the person who told us that the words "thought", "felt", and "knew" are always followed by a past tense

Yes, I believe that was probably me. I tend to preach that! Of course, as always with language, you may encounter a few exceptions in your reading, but that doesn't mean that the general rule is invalid.

AnonymousI think it is safe to conclude that I will encounter a past tense after the phrases "would have thought" and "would have felt" most of the time in the writing world, and it also would be safe to include the phrase "would have known" to it

Yes. That's reasonable. The "would have" family of expressions is very likely to be accompanied by something else in the past tense (or past perfect).

AnonymousAs for the other words like "suggest" or "surmise" (there seems to be too many to list here), would you say a variety of tense options are available depending on the context of the sentences or what you want to say?

Yes. There are a great many verbs that can introduce that clauses, and there is no single rule that covers them all. It's likely that if you checked a large body of texts, you would find many different combinations of tenses.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hi, thank you, again.

You wrote:

Anonymous

“I think it is safe to conclude that I will encounter a past tense after the phrases "would have thought" and "would have felt" most of the time in the writing world, and it also would be safe to include the phrase "would have known" to it”

Yes. That's reasonable. The "would have" family of expressions is very likely to be accompanied by something else in the past tense (or past perfect).

Question: As to your response above, do you include in the '"would have" family' all suitable verbs (assuming they fit the context of the sentences) including the three mentioned, that is "thought", "knew" and "felt"? So would you say all these underlined phrases are very likely to have some words or phrases following in the past or past perfect tense? And it's not just the three words, "thought", "felt" and "knew", that are very likely to be have some words or phrases following in the past or past perfect tense- right or wrong?

eg,

He would have thought/known/felt/suggested/surmised that this theory held/had held true.

Thank you for your anticipated help.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymous not just the three words, "thought", "felt" and "knew"

Correct. A combination of any verb with "would have" is very likely to occur in a sentence that also has another clause in the past or past perfect.

Susan would have asked whether he [was ill at the time / had seen the play].

There is nothing unusual about this. Present-point-of-view tenses normally go together in the same sentence, and past-point-of-view tenses normally go together in the same sentence.

Present point of view:
present tense, present perfect tense (has ..., have ...),
and any tense with am, is, are, do, does, will, can, may, might, must, should.

Past point of view:
past tense, past perfect tense (had ...), and any tense with was, were, did, would, could.

(This doesn't mean you can't have combinations of verbs from both groups.)

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Thank you, again. Thank you for all the help. Could you help me with this, too?

Why do you think we can say/write as a correct sentence example sentence 1, whereas we can't say/write as correct sentences example sentences 2 and 3 (I think they are like that, not sure though) ?

(For this, let us say that we are talking about something we take as a fact, such as the Earth revolving around the sun. I think there is a person who found that out a long time ago (don't know the name either). Let us say (assume) the person who found out is male.)

1. He found out the Earth revolves around the sun. -- I think this is correct tense-wise.

Would these be incorrect in the present tense?

2. He would have found out that the Earth revolves around the sun. -- not correct, has to be in the past tense?

3. He would have thought that the Earth revolves around the sun. -- not correct, has to be in the past tense?

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousWhy do you think we can say/write as a correct sentence example sentence 1, whereas we can't say/write as correct sentences example sentences 2 and 3 (I think they are like that, not sure though) ?

I don't accept the premise that we can't write 2 and 3.

AnonymousWould these be incorrect in the present tense?

2. He would have found out that the Earth revolves around the sun. -- ~~not correct, has to be in the past tense?~~

3. He would have thought that the Earth revolves around the sun. -- ~~not correct, has to be in the past tense?~~

It's not true that you have to use the past tense in these. Let me repeat something I wrote above:

This doesn't mean you can't have combinations of verbs from both groups.

CJ

Tenses after "would have thought" always in the past?

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