Question
30 Nov 2020
- Japanese
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
He cannot have been there for he was playing tennis with us.
He should have been there for he was playing tennis with us.
Do they mean the same thing?
He cannot have been there for he was playing tennis with us.
He should have been there for he was playing tennis with us.
Do they mean the same thing?
He should have been there for he was playing tennis with us.
Do they mean the same thing?
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- English (US)
- Simplified Chinese (China) Near fluent
They don't mean the same thing.
The first sentence should be "He could not have been there because he was playing tennis with us."
It means that he was unable to be at another place because he was playing tennis with you at the time.
The second sentence implies that he was expected to be at another place but he wasn't since he was playing tennis with you.
Additional context would be helpful in determining which one is the right one to use.
- English (US)
I am confused. What is the context you want to use these sentences in?
In the first sentence, “He cannot have been there...” implies that “he” could not physically have been in another place, because he was playing tennis with someone (us) at that time.
The second sentence doesn’t really make sense, unless “he” is reffering to two different people within the same sentence, which you can do in English if you have already been talking about two different men/boys. And that is the only way I can see it making sense.
Saying, “He SHOULD HAVE been there...” implies that “he”(someone) was expected to be at the tennis match, because “he” (someone else) was playing tennis.
Does that help? This is a hard question to answer without knowing the context that it is being used in. If you can give me context I might be able to help more.
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