ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Grammar Geek — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:09:41 GMT

Oh my.

Well, there are all sorts of regional things. In Maine, they say "It come out good." That doesn't make it standard English.

In your example, if the woman were speaking standard English, she would have said "He would HAVE gone out..." not "would had."

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:01:56 GMT

I absolutely agree that would and had CAN go together particularly when expressing/stressing a past event which also ended in the past - it is after all merely the combination of subjunctive + past perfect. The following case sounds fine to my Midwest American (long lived in English) ears:

Policeman to woman: "Was your husband home at the time of the robbery?"
Woman: "No, he would had gone out by that time." (i.e. I'm not sure as I wasn't there either, but I'm almost certain that based on his normal actions he probably was not at home.)

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Anonymous — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:28:55 GMT

it would had been okay if it were you

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Kooyeen — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:30:38 GMT

CalifJim wrote:

It doesn't exist in any English, good or bad!

Hmmm, I wouldn't be so sure... You don't want to know what I once found on the net! A lot of structures that are sometimes used in British dialects. Well, some were umbelievable, lol.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

CalifJim — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 18:24:03 GMT

would had
doesn't exist in good English, IMO

It doesn't exist in any English, good or bad!

It's one of those combinations that doesn't even make enough sense to be wrong! (Something like the combination headache agricultural, perhaps, i.e., total nonsense.)

CJ

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Marius Hancu — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:57:26 GMT
would had
doesn't exist in good English, IMO

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

CalifJim — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 04:51:03 GMT

I get you[r] point, therefore ''would have been'' is the correct expression.
Excellent!

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Jackson6612 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:32:22 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
Jackson,

The modals are can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, and must.

The bare infinitive of to have is have -- not has or had or having.

All modals must be followed by a bare infinitive.

You should now be able to answer your own question very easily.

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1: It would have been okay, if it were you.

2: It would had been okay, if it were you.

CJ

Thanks a lot for such a precise reply, CJ. I get you point, therefore ''would have been'' is the correct expression.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Ant_222 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:29:22 GMT
Jacksoon:

Hope, you don't mind if I try to help.

«Don't you think red and brown statements are in contradiction to each other? The red statements tell that help was received, while the brown statements point out that help wasn't received.»

«You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I hate him and you know it. I wouldn't have done that if I had known it was not for you.»

This part (red) indeed says that help has been proveded, but the speaker expresses his unwillingness to do that. He didn't feel good when helping.

«It would have been okay, if it was/had been you who needed help. I would happily have helped you.»

And this part tells nothing about whether he helped him or not, it just conveys the thought that the speaker would be very glad to help his friend (instead of helping the friend's friend)

So, the example is not contradictory: the speaker forced himself to help his friend's friend (part one), and then he says he wouldn't have had to force himself if his friend needed help.

You see, Koyeen wanted to put more in his example and complicated it a bit.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

CalifJim — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:31:46 GMT
Jackson,

The modals are can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, and must.

The bare infinitive of to have is have -- not has or had or having.

All modals must be followed by a bare infinitive.

You should now be able to answer your own question very easily.

Which of the following sentences is correct?

1: It would have been okay, if it were you.

2: It would had been okay, if it were you.

CJ

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Jackson6612 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 21:23:23 GMT

Kooyeen wrote:

You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I hate him and you know it. I wouldn't have done that if I had known it was not for you. It would have been okay, if it was/had been you who needed help. I would happily have helped you. <--- in a context where that friend needed help sometime in the past.

Hi Kooyeen,

Don't you think red and brown statements are in contradiction to each other? The red statements tell that help was received, while the brown statements point out that help wasn't received.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Kooyeen — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:54:41 GMT

Jackson6612 wrote:
You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I cannot help him. I hate him and you know it. It would have/had been okay, if it were you. I would happily help you.

You didn't tell me that it is/was your friend who needs/needed help. Man, I cannot help him. I hate him and you know it. It would be ok if it was/were you who needed help. I would happily help you. <-- all this in a context where that friend needs help (now).

You didn't tell me that it is/was your friend who needs/needed help. It would be ok if it was/were you (who needed help). I would happily help you. But I cannot help him. I hate him and you know it. <-- all this in a context where that friend needs help (now).

You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I hate him and you know it. I wouldn't have done that if I had known it was not for you. It would have been okay, if it was/had been you who needed help. I would happily have helped you. <--- in a context where that friend needed help sometime in the past.

That's some stuff for you... not sure you really needed that, though. It's just what I would say.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Ant_222 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:14:19 GMT
With this context: «You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I cannot help him. I hate him and you know it. It would have/had been okay, if it were you. I would happily help you.»

I think you're right.

If you didn't help him in the past, that's the way to express it, I mean "would have been".

As I said, "would had been" is never OK.

The use would turns "had" into "have" just like the use of "did" turns "went" into "go":

I went there.
Did you go there.
I did go there.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Jackson6612 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 18:07:03 GMT

Ant_222 wrote:
If you mean the present: Yesterday I drank too much vodka. I would feel much better (now) if it had been wine. As to your sentence, "would had been" is certainly wrong, while your #1 requires a context to decide whether it is correct. It would have been OK (yesterday) if I hadn't drunk vodka (the day before yesterday).

Context:

You didn't tell me that it was your friend who needed help. Man, I cannot help him. I hate him and you know it. It would have/had been okay, if it were you. I would happily help you.

Re: It would have/had been okay, if it were you.

Ant_222 — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 17:55:34 GMT
If you mean the present:

Yesterday I drank too much vodka. I would feel much better (now) if it had been wine.

As to your second sentence, "would had been" is certainly wrong, while your #1 requires a context to decide whether it is correct. It might be some kind of mixed conditional, like:

I would have told you if you were a policeman!

Non-mixed:
It would have been OK (yesterday) if I hadn't drunk vodka (the day before yesterday).

EDIT: Ok, here's your context (from another thread):

«Isn't Commander-in-Chief a kind of weird noun? It would have been okay, if it were Chief Commander instead of C-in-C.»

You should say: "It would be ok if it was/were Chief Commander".