What does would've mean here?
UK gave Russia an ultimatum until midnight yesterday to explain about nerve-agent attack on the former Russian spy. Russia ignored the ultimatum. It's unlikely here Russian people say that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultimatum yesterday.
Is "would've been" a third conditional sentence? If not, how does it work in the sentence? I saw this on Fox News. Please help. Thanks.
Top answer
The sentence needs some editing to make sense. I am guessing this, but it still is problematic. It's unlikely to hear Russian people say that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultimatum yesterday.
- The sentence needs some editing to make sense.
- I am guessing this, but it still is problematic.
- It's unlikely to hear Russian people say that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultimatum yesterday.
- It is talking about a hypothetical situation in the past, and the verb is backshifted because it is indirect speech.
- "
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The sentence needs some editing to make sense. I am guessing this, but it still is problematic.
It's unlikely to hear Russian people say that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultimatum yesterday.
It is talking about a hypothetical situation in the past, and the verb is backshifted because it is indirect speech.
It is unlikely to hear Russian peop
0anonymousIt's unlikely here Russian people say that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultimatum yesterday.
As mentioned, the sentence is rather mangled, but I wonder if one problem is that there should be some commas:
It's unlikely here, Russian people say, that president Putin would have been likely to respond to that ultim
0
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