Which could have

It's good you were there to catch him. She could have lost her job if they had found out. I'm not sure why he's so late. He could have missed the bus. They didn't know why the shipment hasn't arrived yet. They said it could have gone to the wrong address. They both almost mean the same thing, but their meanings would completely change if exchanged with each other in a sentence.

The difference between would have and could have is that they can be actually used in both could have and would have, but could have is a bit formal and polite way of saying something compared to could have.

When a person wants to indicate and describe if a certain action happened certainly, then the outcome would have taken place by using would have. Example: 1. You might remember Lieutenant Dan in the movie Forrest Gump. In the movie, Dan loses both of his legs in the Vietnam War. He would have died, but Forrest saved him. We all have a destiny. Nothing just happens. I should have died out there with my men.

Should have can be used in a light-hearted way. In this song, country singer Toby Keith imagines how exciting his life would be if he had chosen to be a cowboy. As you can see, these modals of lost opportunities offer a colorful way to talk about past choices. Leave us example sentence. Load more comments. Search Search. Audio menu. Learning English Broadcast.

Previous Next. Everyday Grammar. The phrase you use should have been used. They do not mean the same, and the author meant to say could have , not could have had. That's it. The first independent clause is determined by historical and discourse context. If there isn't context such as ' The reviewers put forward the following argument.

The first study had not controlled Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. If the study has concluded then "Could have had" would be much more appropriate. Improve this answer. David Watts David Watts 4 4 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. Jojo Jojo 11 1 1 bronze badge.