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What tense is "would have been"?

English Language & Usage Asked by David Chiu on August 24, 2021

This is used in Conditional Type 3. But no one knows what tense this is…

2 Answers

the verb group 'would have been' is

present (have), finite, perfect (been), non-progressive, modal (would), positive, non-contrastive

which in so-called 3rd conditionals expresses past irrealis, eg,

Had you been there, it would have been nice.

Answered by Arm the good guys in America on August 24, 2021

In English, tense of a finite clause is always marked on the first verb of the finite clause, and is either 'present' or 'past'. (A non-finite clause doesn't have any tense.)

In your example, the first verb would is the only finite verb--and the only tensed verb--and is in the past tense. Therefore, would have been is in the past tense.

Answered by JK2 on August 24, 2021

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