MelB said:Je pourrais avoir répondu
J'aurais pu répondu
Just a small correction...
FR: could have replied
- Thread starter Markus
- Start date
Just a small correction...
Thanks Markus,
I'll try to remember. J'aurais pu répondu (I would have been able to answer or I could have answered). Two past participles in a row there. Hmmmm. That's why I shied away from it. I thought that must make it wrong.
My effort had the flaw of translating from English to French, somewhat literally.
Je pourais (I would have been able) avoir (to have) répondu (responded). It seemed logical, but . . .
I'll try to remember. J'aurais pu répondu (I would have been able to answer or I could have answered). Two past participles in a row there. Hmmmm. That's why I shied away from it. I thought that must make it wrong.
My effort had the flaw of translating from English to French, somewhat literally.
Je pourais (I would have been able) avoir (to have) répondu (responded). It seemed logical, but . . .
MelB said:
Oh!! You're right, j'aurais pu répondu is wrong! Sorry about that. It should be "j'aurais pu répondre". It's great that you're starting to get an instinct for what feels right.
Thanks. So then, let me try to translate this, to see if I have the distinction on these two tenses that do not (per geve's comment in this thread) require à or de before the infinitive:
J'aurais pu répondre--I ought to have been able (or should have been able) to respond.
Je pourrais répondre--I would have been able to respond (or could have) responded
So then, let me try to translate this, to see if I have the distinction on these two tenses that do not (per geve's comment in this thread) require à or de before the infinitive: J'aurais pu répondre--I ought to have been able (or should have been able) to respond.
Je pourrais répondre--I would have been able to respond (or could have) responded
MelB said:
As far as I know, the way I look at it anyway, they mean the same but the first is in the past conditional, while the second is in the present conditional... SO...
j'aurais pu répondre = I could HAVE responded, but (I MISSED your call Friday) in the past (think of connecting the "have" with the "aurais / avoir")
je pourrais répondre = I could respond, (but I AM missing some information) in the present, right now
Scandalously in Love,
Thanks. I was about to come back, and change my post as I had my translations wrong, and your fix was what I was going to correct to. I had already gone back, and edited a post I'd written on Camus (a few days old, so buried that I had wrong (but I wanted to fix the record) (hide my butchering of the French language). I had a line about Camus, "He could have written at the end of The Stranger . . ."
And here, it would be, "il aurait pu écrire" à la fin de L'étranger . . ."
On pouvoir and devoir, I must confess I seem to have the tenses down in my head one day, and forget it the next. Still, I think, "devoir" and "pouvoir" are really important verbs to learn.
Thanks. I was about to come back, and change my post as I had my translations wrong, and your fix was what I was going to correct to. I had already gone back, and edited a post I'd written on Camus (a few days old, so buried that I had wrong (but I wanted to fix the record) (hide my butchering
of the French language). I had a line about Camus, "He could have written at the end of The Stranger . . ."And here, it would be, "il aurait pu écrire" à la fin de L'étranger . . ."
On pouvoir and devoir, I must confess I seem to have the tenses down in my head one day, and forget it the next. Still, I think, "devoir" and "pouvoir" are really important verbs to learn.