Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 September 6

= September 6 =

Tense
Not a homework What English tense is this: "They can't have pulled this by hand"? Thanks. 212.180.235.46 (talk) 15:25, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Present perfect. "Have + past participle" is usually present perfect tense.  -- Jayron 32 15:50, 6 September 2018 (UTC)


 * But not in this case. It's a perfect infinitive (the modal verb is the clue). "They can't" is present simple, which is the only tense used in the sentence. HenryFlower 16:27, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Yes in this case; the use of the modal verb "can't" adds the conditional mood to the sentence; moods are not tenses. -- Jayron 32 16:33, 6 September 2018 (UTC)


 * Jayron, you should really stop digging (and maybe give linguistics questions a discreetly wide berth in future). At least start with Grammatical_tense and follow the links from there. The basics: an English verb has tense if it relates to the time and the subject; "have pulled" does not because it remains unchanged by the former (compare "couldn't have pulled") and the latter (compare "he can't have pulled", not *"he can't has pulled"). HenryFlower 16:44, 6 September 2018 (UTC)
 * That's right. -- Jayron 32 17:10, 6 September 2018 (UTC)