Timeline for Is it OK to use perfect infinitive in such cases...?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 4, 2015 at 15:19 | answer | added | DrSpleen | timeline score: 0 | |
| Jun 4, 2015 at 12:13 | answer | added | user124033 | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 1, 2014 at 18:52 | comment | added | jules | Cf. Swan M. (2005). Practical English Usage. p. 264. | |
| May 1, 2014 at 18:20 | comment | added | jules | PS. I'm really at a loss on what you're trying to prove. | |
| May 1, 2014 at 18:15 | comment | added | jules | The "have been" in the example is not a tense, it's a perfect infinitive without "to". Could" changes jack. "You can't speak English." "You can't be speaking English." "You can't have spoken English." are - syntactically - the same structure - modal + infinitive. TENSE: A set of forms taken by a verb to indicate the time (and sometimes also the continuance or completeness) of the action in relation to the time of the utterance. INFINITIVE: The basic form of a verb, without an inflection binding it to a particular subject or tense (e.g.see in we came to see, let him see | |
| May 1, 2014 at 11:31 | comment | added | Apple Freejeans | That being said, adding subjunctive tense makes it so that @jules it does not happen at a specific times. We could not state, "I had been sad yesterday." You COULD state, "I COULD have been sad yesterday." because it removes the exactness of time. I am really tired of people pretending we should go by what "sounds" right to us. These things have very simple rules. I was simply outlining the rules for perfect tense since that was his question. | |
| May 1, 2014 at 11:28 | comment | added | Apple Freejeans | To quote my favorite online resource for perfect tense, "We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at an unspecified time before now. The exact time is not important. You CANNOT use the Present Perfect with specific time expressions such as: yesterday, one year ago, last week, when I was a child, when I lived in Japan, at that moment, that day, one day, etc. We CAN use the Present Perfect with unspecific expressions such as: ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc. " englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 21:29 | comment | added | jules | I'm pretty sure it's not about the present perfect tense and the lack of exact time. If it were, we couldn't say: "You shouldn't have done it yesterday", and I feel it's quite correct. | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 21:22 | vote | accept | jules | ||
| Apr 30, 2014 at 18:38 | comment | added | Apple Freejeans | One more comment. If you go with your corrected response, a semicolon does not sufficiently explain the relationship between the two independent thoughts. The coordinating conjunction "and" would do better. "He could be killed tomorrow, and I couldn't care less." The time differential is the reason: {He could die tomorrow. [;] I could not care right now.} {He could die tomorrow. [, and] I could not care right now.} | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 18:35 | answer | added | Jon Jay Obermark | timeline score: 1 | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 18:31 | comment | added | Apple Freejeans | Incorrect use of the present-perfect tense "have been". 1: The time cannot be exact, so "tomorrow" defeats it. 2: The event would have occurred in the past, not he future. "They could have been killed; I wouldn't have cared less." Keeping it as close to the original as possible: "They could be killed tomorrow [; I couldn't care less.]" [and I would not care.] [for all I care.] | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 18:23 | comment | added | John Lawler | More simply (and I think more commonly) They could get killed tomorrow and I couldn't care less/wouldn't care. In emphatic phraseology, simpler is shorter is more memorable is better. | |
| Apr 30, 2014 at 18:14 | history | asked | jules | CC BY-SA 3.0 |