Which of these, and why? (or why not?):
- I would have liked to have helped.
- I would have liked to help.
- I would like to have helped.
All three seem acceptable, but applicable to different timing of problem and opportunities to help.
The first would mean you learned of problem too late to do anything.
The second would mean you would have been willing to help, but were not asked to do so.
The third would be mean you regret not having been asked tohelp.
I completely agree with your first two definitions, Bill, but I don't think the third is really acceptable as nit-pickingly-formal, written English - although you would get away with it easily in spoken or casual written English.
I agree w/ RC, I think; and, I
lurve your subject title!
Dear RC: I agree that the third version is clumsy, but I can imagine saying it.
"They are friends of mine. I would like to have helped, but didn't get the chance to do so.
I agree w/ RC,And I agree w/ Moon Pie. I mean Bill.
(Sorry, that was a silly joke, and I mean
was literally.)
No matter. RC, what manner of word construction would you assemble to approach Bill's meaning # 3.
Remember RC, meaning over form.
So, I'd like to help with an answer, yet, I could care less, but...
I'd plump for 'b'. 'c' confuses future and past; and 'a' has a lot of redundant usage in it- 2 'haves' with 2 pasts
I'd go with 'b' or with a totally different construction such as: I would have liked to have been of help
I would have liked to have responded, but I liked to respond clearly, so I didn't respond at all. I would have liked to respond unequivocably.
Just fooling around in the above. I would like to have helped, but don't imagine I have.
I'm with wwh and milum: meaning's the thing. With a dash of nuance.
I like the thread title, too.
An aye for the title too from my end.
I wonder if WW meant my earlier post; went back and read it and it did read somewhat at sixes and sevens. Here's what I meant:
a: sentence formation seems redundant to me; what jars is the use of the word 'have' twice and both times in the past tense
c: confuses the future tense (would like) with the past tense (helped)
I liked to die when I read some of these.
Dear Faldage: Seriously, I trhough "like" in that bit of country dialecct was not a verb.
I liked to die when I read some of these.
Good to hear you're over it.
Not seriously though:
In reply to:
I liked to die when I read some of these.
More Southern would be:
"I liked to have died when I read some of these."
And the Irrelevant Argument of the Year Award goes to:
Dub'Dub for
More Southern would be:
I think a) sounds like a product of the Department of Redundancy Department. B) and c) sound as if they mean the same and say it much more clearly than a), where the speaker seems to be stuck in a time warp. Maybe in several at once.
I thought it was LIKE to have died, not LIKED.
The d of liked gets assimilated into the t of to. It's usually used speaking of something that happened in the past. ¿Qué no?
Yeah, I always think of it as past tense, but I just never hear the "d". But I almost never get to hear that expression any more, living in hyperurbanized Atlanta. Land sakes, I reckon I should high tail it down to Griffin. I'm fixin to forget my idiom.
Wait a minute. I'm a midwesterner.
I just never hear the "d"
Well, yeah. It's assimilated into the to. Try pronouncing each with all the distinctitude of your typical rural southerner and tell me how different they sound.
In reply to:
It's assimilated into the to.
Another Faldagian expression to drop at the next cocktail party.
By the way, Faldage, if it's so irrelevant, why's you and birdseed talking about it?
"By the way, Faldage, if it's so irrelevant, why's you and birdseed talking about it?"
Because it's so danged irrelevant! Don't you know NUTHIN' about overeducated people?
if it's so irrelevant,
Ain't the d in liked that's irrelevant.
hyperurbanized
I think that word should become 'hypurbanized'... What's that word for dropping a syllable?
> hyperurbanized
I think that word should become 'hypurbanized'
I don't. Hypurbanised sounds too much like hyperbole to my ears. Retaining that extra syllable seems to make its meaning much clearer. At least, that's the way it looks up here.
The d of liked gets assimilated into the t of to. It's usually used speaking of something that happened in the past. ~ faldageMaybeso, but that is the way english will be talked in the far future, so listen...
I like ta died when I heard faldage yankee-talk about a "
d " being swallowed up by a "
t ".
Double damn talk and snake tongue devils, don't the man know that the "
t " has already to much to do, "
ta " being a contraction of "
to have", the use of "
like" rather than "
liked" is simply a "
temporal allusion" that brings life (by way of immediacy) to the idiom, which "
ta " restores to the proper tense.
Geez! Sometimes I get so upset I cuss in yankee-talk.
I think that word should become 'hypurbanized'
I don't. Hypurbanised sounds too much like hyperbole to my ears. Retaining that extra syllable seems to make its meaning much clearer. At least, that's the way it looks up here. Oh, finally finally FINALLY--*I* made a joke and *you* didn't get it!
I will add on, and say that you need to say it hypurbanized, not hyperbanized, so people can tell the difference!
you need to say it hypurbanized, not hyperbanized, so people can tell the difference!
Parbly it needs that certain special Loouhv'lle accent to work.
that certain special Loouhv'lle accent
Hey, you got it right! :-) Not everybody can, that's fer shur.
got it right!
For which I can thank Col. Bob. I still don't have a clue as to the difference between the pronunciations of hyperbanized and hypurbanized.
Faldage [elbow nudge],
I think Jackie just might be pulling your patootie.
>Oh, finally finally FINALLY--*I* made a joke and *you* didn't get it!
It's the heat, that's my excuse - temperatures hanging around 30 are lovely, but they fuse both my synapses together.
I think Jackie just might be pulling your patootie. Hey, thanks for the invite--even if it did come after the fact!
And so, finally, what is it then?