would ( not ) have + PAST PARTICIPLE – English Grammar Profiler

The modal verb Would

has no past tense, however,

can be used to affirm actions that did not happen. In the following examples, I was not a mother, but I can imagine the past from a different perspective and state:

I would have made a great mother.

listen to this example

I think

I would have liked

to have been a mom.

listen

When this structure is found with conditional clauses, it can also express the possible result of a situation that was unlikely to happen. This is often referred to as the ‘third conditonal’. In the following example, you did not tell me and as a result, I did not take you.

If you had told me,

I would have taken you.

listen

Because this structure contains two auxiliary verbs that can be contracted, many people contract them in two ways.

Look, if I ‘d seen him get on the plane,

I would’ve gone and asked him for my money.

listen

I‘d have gone with him.

listen

We can see that both ways are almost equally common in the iWeb corpus:

‘D HAVE GONE 650
WOULD ‘VE GONE 873

Here are negative example sentences with ‘not‘:

I would not have been able to graduate without your help.

listen

I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to come and see you.

listen

*Notice in the example above, the first ‘HAVE’ is the auxiliary verb and the second ‘HAD’ is the main verb or past participle.

would have + past participle examples

To look for the most frequent examples of ‘would have + PP‘, we can search in the iWeb corpus for:

would have _vvn

1 WOULD HAVE MADE 32292

2 WOULD HAVE THOUGHT 31800 C2

The following advanced example sentence expresses surprise / disbelief that I actually cooked something:

I mean who would have thought

that I‘d ever cook anything?

listen

3 WOULD HAVE LIKED 26488
4 WOULD HAVE TAKEN 19768
5 WOULD HAVE GONE 14581
6 WOULD HAVE LOVED 13844
7 WOULD HAVE GIVEN 13574

8 WOULD HAVE HAPPENED 11396

Music Feeds

It is a real belief in promoting Australian music,

and none of this would have happened

without Michael.

*NONE OF THIS = B2 NEGATION

9 WOULD HAVE SEEN 10742
10 WOULD HAVE SAID 10316
11 WOULD HAVE PREFERRED 10293

12 WOULD HAVE EXPECTED 10040

I never would have expected that.

13 WOULD HAVE GOTTEN 968014 WOULD HAVE KNOWN 8879
15 WOULD HAVE FOUND 7390
16 WOULD HAVE COME 6981
17 WOULD HAVE HELPED 6380
18 WOULD HAVE REQUIRED 6176
19 WOULD HAVE WANTED 6154
20 WOULD HAVE PUT 6126
21 WOULD HAVE LOOKED 6033
22 WOULD HAVE COST 5979
23 WOULD HAVE USED 5871
24 WOULD HAVE WON 5848
25 WOULD HAVE WORKED 5722
26 WOULD HAVE PAID 5539
27 WOULD HAVE ALLOWED 5454
28 WOULD HAVE SAVED 5317
29 WOULD HAVE RECEIVED 5102
30 WOULD HAVE LOST 4990
31 WOULD HAVE TOLD 4822
32 WOULD HAVE LEFT 4813
33 WOULD HAVE MEANT 4688
34 WOULD HAVE DIED 4415
35 WOULD HAVE BOUGHT 4243
36 WOULD HAVE GOT 4158
37 WOULD HAVE NEEDED 4062
38 WOULD HAVE TURNED 4029
39 WOULD HAVE GUESSED 4020
40 WOULD HAVE FELT 3956
41 WOULD HAVE ENDED 3876
42 WOULD HAVE BECOME 3870
43 WOULD HAVE SPENT 3681
44 WOULD HAVE KEPT 3647
45 WOULD HAVE RESULTED 3555
46 WOULD HAVE CAUSED 3531
47 WOULD HAVE CHANGED 3492
48 WOULD HAVE KILLED 3313
49 WOULD HAVE CALLED 2963
50 WOULD HAVE BROUGHT 2954 — Here are all the past participles in ranking order found after “would have”. They have also been profiled with text inspector with the CEFR level.

To make would have + past participle negative, we just add a form of NOT between the auxiliary verbs.

would _XX have _VVN

1 WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED 2181
2 WOULDN’T HAVE THOUGHT 2151 (contracted)
3 WOULDN’T HAVE MADE 2100
4 WOULD NOT HAVE MADE 1980
5 WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED 1921
6 WOULDN’T HAVE KNOWN 1785
7 WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN 1348
8 WOULD NOT HAVE KNOWN 1303
9 WOULDN’T HAVE GONE 1098
10 WOULD NOT HAVE TAKEN 1039
11 WOULD NOT HAVE THOUGHT 1013
12 WOULD NOT HAVE OCCURRED 1004
13 WOULD NOT HAVE GONE 957
14 WOULDN’T HAVE WANTED 887
15 WOULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED 847
16 WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN 845
17 WOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN 826
18 WOULD NOT HAVE COME 815
19 WOULDN’T HAVE WORKED 770
20 WOULDN’T HAVE SEEN 738
21 WOULDN’T HAVE GOT 727
22 WOULDN’T HAVE BELIEVED 715
23 WOULD NOT HAVE WANTED 664
24 WOULD NOT HAVE WORKED 610
25 WOULD NOT HAVE SEEN 594
26 WOULDN’T HAVE COME 590
27 WOULD NOT HAVE BELIEVED 577
28 WOULDN’T HAVE MINDED 576
29 WOULDN’T HAVE GIVEN 569
30 WOULD NOT HAVE FOUND 568
31 WOULD NOT HAVE GIVEN 565
32 WOULDN’T HAVE BOUGHT 555
33 WOULDN’T HAVE EXPECTED 546
34 WOULDN’T HAVE FOUND 541
35 WOULDN’T HAVE SAID 540
36 WOULDN’T HAVE MATTERED 539
37 WOULDN’T HAVE CHANGED 515
38 WOULD NOT HAVE ALLOWED 494
39 WOULD NOT HAVE BOUGHT 485
40 WOULDN’T HAVE BOTHERED 456
41 WOULD NOT HAVE CHANGED 449
42 WOULDN’T HAVE NOTICED 419
43 WOULD NOT HAVE EXPECTED 412
44 WOULD NOT HAVE DIED 395
45 WOULD NOT HAVE RECEIVED 390
46 WOULDN’T HAVE HELPED 385
47 WOULD NOT HAVE BECOME 376
48 WOULDN’T HAVE NEEDED 369
49 WOULDN’T HAVE WON 369
50 WOULDN’T HAVE SURVIVED 364

B1 past participles:

allowed, expected, noticed, required

One last very advanced example:

But it‘s incredibly unlikely

Wheatley would have been able to publicly condemn slavery

without serious consequences.

TED

would have + past participle examples

Leave a Comment