Sunday, March 25, 2018

grammaticality - Should I use part participle form of every verb that follow "would have"?


I wrote a sentence on my own jokingly.



How cool would it be, if I could have infiltrated the Kremlin, steal the Tsar's throne and return to my peaceful home unharmed



Regarding that sentence my friend told me, it would have been grammatical if I wrote it in the following way



How cool would it be, if I could have infiltrated the Kremlin, stolen the Tsar's throne and returned to my peaceful home unharmed




The BOLD parts are changed in the last sentence. The reason he told me was that the could have part should be followed by past participle form of every verbs. So as I had written "could have infiltrated", I should have used stolen and returned for the same reason. Is it true?


To me, if I could have infiltrated the Kremlin, I am like gone to the fictional time and now what I was about to do is like happening in the present of that time. So I used present tense.



Answer



Look at it this way:



How cool would it be if I could have infiltrated the Kremlin! (what you already had)


How cool would it be if I could have stolen the Tsar's throne!


How cool would it be if I could have returned home!



The 'present tense' alternatives are wrong:




How cool would it be if I could have infiltrate the Kremlin!*


How cool would it be if I could have steal the throne!*


How cool would it be if I could have return home!*



As you see, the real problem is that "could have" is part of the verb phrase of infiltrate, and of steal, and of return.


Compare:


I had heard and seen him (correct).


I had heard and saw him* (incorrect).


I had heard him, but now I saw him (correct).



No comments:

Post a Comment

Simple past, Present perfect Past perfect

Can you tell me which form of the following sentences is the correct one please? Imagine two friends discussing the gym... I was in a good s...