why?

Question

1. You will not have heard of me before but I used to live next door to your sister.
2. That is absurd; they really could not have taken your motorbike by mistake, surely?
3. You are a bit overweight; you should have been doing more regular exercise.
4. You were to have been promoted.

questions:
1. Why using this modal: will; why not You might have ... ?
2. Why is there a question mark at the end; why is it not a full stop?
3. Why using present perfect continuous? why not You should be doing or should do ... .
4. What tense is it?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

1. You will not have heard of me before but I used to live next door to your sister.
2. That is absurd; they really could not have taken your motorbike by mistake, surely?
3. You are a bit overweight; you should have been doing more regular exercise.
4. You were to have been promoted.

questions:
1. Why using this modal: will; why not You might have ... ? 'will' is definite, 'might' is not definite'.
2. Why is there a question mark at the end; why is it not a full stop? 'Surely' is often used in speech to convert a statement into a question. (In addition, and personally, I'd replace the semi-colon with a period.)
3. Why using present perfect continuous? why not You should be doing or should do ... . The continuous form stresses duration ie exercise over a prolonged period.
4. What tense is it?

'You were (to ...) ' indicates past necessity, eg I was to call Tom yesterday. There is a strong implication that the event did not happen, eg I didn't call Tom.

'to have been promoted' is the perfect passive infinitive.

Best wishes, Clive

Inchoateknowledge · Answer

Thanks a million.

Rvw · Answer

1. You will not have heard of me before but I used to live next door to your sister.

I think in this usage, will does not express probability -- rather simple recognition. Webster's Third New International Dictionary has:

will verbal auxiliary
5 -- used to express probability or recognition and often equivalent to the simple verb [Emphasis added.]
<that will be the milkman at the back door>
<this house with the green shutters will be theirs>
<she would have been about twenty when she married>
<discovered a plant growing and clinging close to the rocks. This will be the walking fern or walking leaf -- Anne Dorrance>
<glass that hides the pendulum will often display a fine example of primitive painting -- Ellwood Kirby>

Inchoateknowledge · Answer

No. I think 'will' express probability here.
'You will not have heard of me' is almost the same as 'You may not have heard of me'.

Rvw · Answer

To my ear, it's simple recognition: you have not heard of me before, but ...

Inchoateknowledge · Answer

You convinced me; both your version and mine may be the case.

CalifJim · Answer

My reading is:

You [most likely / probably] have not heard of me, ...

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

1. Why using this modal: will; why not You might have ... ?
2. Why is there a question mark at the end; why is it not a full stop?
3. Why using present perfect continuous? why not You should be doing or should do ... .
4. What tense is it?

1. You would have to ask the person who said it why they chose this wording!
You most likely haven't heard of me before is an approximate equivalent.
You may/might not have heard of me before is also very close.

2. I don't know. I would have used a full stop.

3. should do is advice for the future.
should have done is a mild reprimand for 'not having done' in the past.
should be doing spans the time just before the present and just after, including and surrounding the present, so is usable as either a mild reprimand for 'not doing' in the past or advice for the future, or as both, more or less combined into one idea.
should have been doing spans the time surrounding some past time in a way analogous to the previous description. But because it was in the past, it can't be advice for the future (counting from the moment the words are uttered). It is as if it is saying, if I had known about this at that time in the past I would have said, ... should be doing, i.e., I would have given a mild reprimand that you had 'not been doing' and advice for (what was then) the future.

4. The main verb carries the tense. were is past.

CJ

Rvw · Answer

CalifJim,

I repeat my excerpt from Webster's Third New International Dictionary:

will verbal auxiliary
5 -- used to express probability or recognition and often equivalent to the simple verb [Emphasis added.]
<that will be the milkman at the back door> = that is the milkman ...
<this house with the green shutters will be theirs> = ...shutters is theirs...
<she would have been about twenty when she married> = she was about twenty ...
<discovered a plant growing and clinging close to the rocks. This will be the walking fern or walking leaf -- Anne Dorrance> = This [or that] is the walking fern...
<glass that hides the pendulum will often display a fine example of primitive painting -- Ellwood Kirby> = ...pendulum often displays a fine example...

To my ear, saying "you will not have heard of me" is just another way of saying "you have not heard of me" or "you don't know me." I don't sense the probability. It's just a statement of fact, perhaps in slightly elevated or polite language.

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