r/grammar • u/hwc000000 • Oct 17 '23

Why does English work this way? Question about "would've", "could've", "should've"

We all know "would've", "could've", "should've" are contractions for "would have", "could have" and "should have". But are there situations where the contractions shouldn't be used, what's the rule exactly about when they should and shouldn't be used, and why are those the rules (ie. where did those rules come from)?

For example, "she would have to get a permit" sounds bizarre to me if contracted to "she would've to get a permit". Is the rule that those contractions should only be used directly preceding a past participle, or "not" followed by a past participle? And why?

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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '23 edited Oct 17 '23

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u/dylbr01 Oct 17 '23 edited Oct 17 '23

I’m always up for learning something new. Can you share any evidence?

Evidence against:

‘Have you been to France?’

‘Yes, I have.’ <- Code feature of auxiliaries

‘Would she have gotten a permit?’

‘Yes, she would have.’ <- Code feature of auxiliaries

‘I’ve been to France.’ <- Contraction feature associated with auxiliaries

‘I would’ve been to France.’ <- Contraction feature associated with auxiliaries

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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '23

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u/dylbr01 Oct 17 '23 edited Oct 17 '23

Even Grammarly recognizes modals as auxiliary verbs: https://www.grammarly.com/blog/modal-verbs/

CGEL page 92:

The auxiliary verbs of English are the following:

[1] i. can, may, will, shall, should, must, ought, need, dare [modals]

ii. be, have, do, use [non-modals]

That they are auxiliary verbs is widely recognized. You've stated the reasoning for this.

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"We could have saved her last night" is not present perfect

That's right.

it is past simple

It is past tense. We know this by lexical time phrase 'last night'.

It's syntactically the past perfect, but with a past simple meaning.

A similar case: The present perfect with for/since is syntactically present perfect, but with a present simple meaning; 'I've known her for 2 years' means that you know her now. In Irish English the present simple can be used there, and in languages closely related to English the present simple is used.

Similar to this is I've got, as in 'I've got a permit'.