could have

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Uploaded by on Apr 24, 2009

The video explains how to describe past possibility using "could" + "have" and the past participle.

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Education

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Standard YouTube License

  • likes, 3 dislikes

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Uploader Comments (learnamericanenglish)

  • i wanted to know that if someone says

    " i could not complete the work"

    then does it refer to past tense or it is referring to a possibility.

  • If you say "I could not complete the work," it means that it didn't get finished.

    If you use the negative with "could have," as in this example: She couldn't have completed the work. It means that it's not possible that the work was finished because of the situation, the complexity of the work, the time available, etc.

    So, "could" and "could have" are different.

    Hope that helps.

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All Comments (17)

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  • "I could have became a doctor"..........but then i took an arrow to the knee.

  • thnkx sir you are awesome you are great you are the best you are fantastic i have no words to describe you ... you are Amazing you have a good style to teach students .:)

  • good

    

  • yes, you became a fantastic teacher...

    cngratulations

  • You said many americans didn't know hw to use Past Perfect in Conditionals. It's weird to hear, actually., cuz they would haven't distinguished the Past conditionals and just a simple sequence of tenses. It's known that a PAST simple may also reffer to the Present or , even, to the furure. That would be a nonsense in their heads every time they  would meeet such sentenses, don't you think? Thanks anyway! :)

  • I wish I could of watched this

  • Excellent

  • Thank you very much!

  • Excellent teacher!!!!

  • You indeed taught us a lot about the American English which is not officially taught in our local schools.

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