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Hktrader Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

What's the "tense" over here?

Hi, it was abstracted from Bing news:

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"An expert group has reviewed all the existing information and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said it was now "highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot" when it went down.

"Otherwise it could not have followed the orderly path that has been identified through the satellite sightings," he told reporters.

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My question is, what there is a "have" after "could not"?
what isn't "Otherwise it could not follow the orderly..." be correct?

Thanks in advance for your attention
  

Top answer

I am not sure this is the correct way to approach your question. Normally, when we deal with a 3rd conditional sentence, for example: If I had stolen the 10 million from the company account, I would have been basking in the sun somewhere in the Bahamas ( But none of these had happened ), we are talking about something in the counter-factual aspect. On the other side of the spectrum, like your example, that something indeed happened.

— Grammarfreak

  • I am not sure this is the correct way to approach your question.
  • Normally, when we deal with a 3rd conditional sentence, for example: If I had stolen the 10 million from the company account, I would have been basking in the sun somewhere in the Bahamas ( But none of these had happened ), we are talking about something in the counter-factual aspect.
  • On the other side of the spectrum, like your example, that something indeed happened.
  • The construction " otherwise + could not have + past partciple " is typically used to logically emphaisze the events which had taken place, such as the Asiana crash.
  • The fact that the satellite had recorded the flightpath information of the Asiana, supported the theory that based on the "orderly" path, it was now "highly, highly likely that the aircraft was on autopilot" when it went down.
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2 Answers
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I am not sure this is the correct way to approach your question. Normally, when we deal with a 3rd conditional sentence, for example: If I had stolen the 10 million from the company account, I would have been basking in the sun somewhere in the Bahamas ( But none of these had happened ), we are talking about something in the c
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hktraderOtherwise it could not have followed the orderly path ... what there is Why is there a "have" after "could not"?
"have" after a modal verb expresses the past.

it could not follow ~ it would not be able to follow (now or in the future)
it could not have followed ~ it would not have been able to
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