Hi! First post on these forums. So, I'm having a little difficulty with tense, especially when it comes to "would have" vs "would". The same applies to "could have", "should have", etc. I don't have my head wrapped around the different forms of past tense, so I will list some (altered) examples below, and perhaps I can get a better understanding that way. Just for context (which will be obvious, I guess): the story is written in 3rd person. If you need more context, just let me know. 1: David chose not to aim his rifle, running past the ruins as the monsters would have caught up. 2: David said nothing to her. He believed any conflict would have ruined the relationship. 3: Hearing an echo, David didn't go down the pathway. For all he knew, it could have been the monsters. 4: David saw a person running towards him. He moved out of the way, but when he turned around, he bumped into someone else who had been running. (note: the person had stopped running due to bumping into him). 5: David kept his distance at first as he watched enemy who jumped around with his weapon. 6: The party-goers started dancing wildly. David wished he could have joined the lively action. 7: David was happy having escaped the spaceship; he could have been left limbless if he stayed. (had?) 8: "Hey, I'm okay it," David said. "If you had killed him, then maybe I would have thought otherwise." 9: "You worked for that company?" David asked. "That would have been pretty hard." 10: David saw the robbers running out of the bank. He believed they would have run to their car. And... I'll go with one more: 11: Because David was severely injured, he stole the medkit, as he believed his existence might have depended on it. I understand that if I drop the "have", I would have to alter another word or two in the sentences, so that's not the issue. Like, in number 2, I know that if I have to drop the "have", then it would be "He believed any conflict would ruin the relationship." Just saying. Thanks very much in advance for your replies. Cheers.
I'm not the best at grammar myself, but I believe what you're dealing with here is past perfect tense -- grammarly can explain it better than I could!
Past perfect, subjunctive mood. "would/could/should, etc have" Something might have happened, but did not not. 9. If you worked for that company, it would have been pretty hard. (Speaker did not know before hand that the listener worked for the company) These are all basically correct as written, though I like to run related sentences together for flow: 10 David saw the robbers running out of the bank, believing they were heading toward their car. But that is style.
Thank you for your responses so far. Much appreciated. If anyone else could add feedback, answer the others, that, too, would be great, as I'm still a little confused on the matter. Lew: You gave an example: "10 David saw the robbers running out of the bank, believing they were heading toward their car. " Yes, I would have written it that way, too. I just gave very simple examples (simplified the sentences) so I could understand the issue of tense. Cheers.
having the "have/had" in there makes the sentence past tense. Consider this - you're in a restaurant with a friend and the friend says: "You should have had the beef." The had makes this past tense, going by this sentence, you've already eaten and the friend is telling you the beef was better than what you had. (or what you had gave you indigestion and your friend knew the beef wouldn't) or he says: "You should have the beef." The removal of had makes this present tense - obviously you've not eaten yet, you're still looking at the menu because your friend is telling you, have the beef.
"Would have" denotes the past, "would" denotes either the present or future. For example: "If Guy were here, he would have saved Other Guy". This is in the past tense. This, however, would not work: "If Guy were here, he would saved Other Guy." This sentence is still in the past tense, but it's wrong. But, you can fix this by tweaking the verbs: "If Guy were here, he would save Other Guy." This sentence is now in present tense (It could also be in future tense), and it works. This, however, wouldn't work: "I Guy were here, he would have save Other Guy." See the problem? I'm not terribly sure if this'll help, but I hope it does.
