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ConscientiousStudent Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Would not have believed
Hi all,
"Can my defence be rejected by reason that the sign was too hard to believe, and that a prudent and reasonable person would not have believed it?"
If the above sentense is grammatically correct, can someone please tell me why it is "would have believed"? I know "would have believed" can be used in Conditional Statement such as 'If Jack had seen the iceberg, he would have told the captain.", but there is no "had seen" form of grammar in above example.
Regard,
"Can my defence be rejected by reason that the sign was too hard to believe, and that a prudent and reasonable person would not have believed it?"
If the above sentense is grammatically correct, can someone please tell me why it is "would have believed"? I know "would have believed" can be used in Conditional Statement such as 'If Jack had seen the iceberg, he would have told the captain.", but there is no "had seen" form of grammar in above example.
Regard,
Top answer
The entire sentence sounds very ackward to me, but to answer your specific question, I can think up a sentence where this form would be correct. "
- The entire sentence sounds very ackward to me, but to answer your specific question, I can think up a sentence where this form would be correct.
- "
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6 Answers
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The entire sentence sounds very ackward to me, but to answer your specific question, I can think up a sentence where this form would be correct. For example, "Can my story that is set in medieval times be rejected by the publisher tomorrow because people actually living in those times would not have believed the protagonist's wild statements?"
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You can use "would" when describing hypothetical or uncertain situations even if (as here) there is no explicit "if" statement.
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Mr. Wordy,
Please, can you check my post about something similar to this problem? It's a conditional with the "would" + present perfect in the IF-clause, where we are to use past perfect.
Can you give us some examples of what you said above? I understand from what you mentioned that "would have done" can be use IF-clause. Is that what you ment?
Please, can you check my post about something similar to this problem? It's a conditional with the "would" + present perfect in the IF-clause, where we are to use past perfect.
Can you give us some examples of what you said above? I understand from what you mentioned that "would have done" can be use IF-clause. Is that what you ment?
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ConscientiousStudentplease tell me why it is "would have believed"?The if clause is implicit.
... the sign was too hard to believe ... a prudent and reasonable person would not have believed it.
is equivalent to
If any reasonable and prudent person had seen the sign, he would not have believed it.
CJ
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renan torres-riveroCan you give us some examples of what you said above?
"Is it true they would have killed him?"
"I would have come, but I was too busy."
"In a properly designed product this would never happen."renan torres-rivero I understand from what you mentioned that "would have done"
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