Hi, dear teachers.
I think there are three usages of "would not/never have pp":
1. used to comment on someone's nature (it can be seen as a third conditional but people usually don't see it that way)
e.g. Syrio Forel would never have let them knock him down and take his sword away, nor stood by when they killed Lommy Greenhands. Syrio would never have sat silent in that storehouse nor shuffled along meekly among the other captives. (Game of Thrones)
2. 3rd conditional (counterfactual usage)
e.g. “and these old knights are more cunning than you think, or they would never have lived to see their first grey hair.
3. 3rd conditional (non-counterfactual usage)
e.g. I was his brother, not Ned Stark, but you would never have known it by the way he treated me.
( If you'd seen the way he treated me, you wouldn't have thought I was his brother)
To put it simply, as long as a sentence is not using the construction "would not/never have pp" to comment on someone's nature, it is definitely a third conditional. Do you agree with this conclusion and my classification?
Thank you.
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.