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Contraposition Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
would have : counterfactual?
In this sentence, is 'would have' counterfactual?
She would have made some cutting rejoinder but none came to mind.
She would have made some cutting rejoinder but none came to mind.
Top answer
She would have made some cutting rejoinder but none came to mind. Yes. Implicitly, If some cutting rejoinder had come to mind, she would have made it.
- She would have made some cutting rejoinder but none came to mind.
- Yes.
- Implicitly, If some cutting rejoinder had come to mind, she would have made it.
- Similarly, you can construct the implicit third conditional from each of these: I would have contributed a few dollars to their cause, but I didn't have any money with me at the time.
- Lana would have enjoyed seeing the movie.
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3 Answers
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contraposition In this sentence, is 'would have' counterfactual?She would have made some cutting rejoinder but none came to mind.Yes. Implicitly,
If some cutting rejoinder had come to mind, she would have made it.
Similarly, you can construct the implicit third conditional from each of these:
I would have contributed a fe
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contrapositionWhat is the difference from 'could have' or 'can have'?I assume you mean "when used before a past participle".
can have is rare. It's almost never used. It is used with a negative, however (can't have), with the meaning must not have.
could have generally means would have been able.
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