Don't get tense over tenses
This specimen has been submitted to the Grammar Lab:
The following turns up frequently:
I think we would have loved to have done even more.
You could say
. . .we would love to have done even more. or
. . .would have loved doing even more.
or . . . would have loved to do even more.
but I'm certain that "would have loved to have done" is wrong. It's like doubling the past and throwing in the conditional for lagniappe, which suggests the kind of time-travel found only in science-fiction.
Do you know the name of this fault?
I could sure utilize, as they say, your help.
The specimen sentence smudges the sequence of tenses in English. The perfect tenses — with an auxiliary verb attached to the past participle — work to establish distinctions in the time of actions or states of being.
We would love to have done even more expresses a feeling in the present about a past action.
We would have loved to do more expresses a feeling in the past about a past action.
We would have loved to have done even more is a jumble. The present perfect — have plus a past participle — indicates a past action compared with a present time. This sentence has two conditional past perfects without establishing a clear relationship to the present. The alternatively worded sentences clearly establish a relationship in time.
There is a useful entry on verb tenses at Purdue University’s OWL (Online Writing Lab).







Comments
what me worry?
Posted by: bryanintimonium | March 23, 2009 9:57 AM
"I think we would have loved to have done even more."
Doesn't that express a feeling in the present about a feeling in the past about an action in the past? Just one dumb old engineer's opinion.
Posted by: Retired in Elkridge | March 23, 2009 10:02 AM
I'd argue that "would have loved to do more" suggests a feeling in the past regarding an action in which the feeling and action are coincident in time. And that for the phrase "would have loved to have done more", the feeling is in the past, and the action was farther in the past.
Doesn't seem like an impossible scenario, but I'd agree that this doesn't reflect the typical intent.
Posted by: harry | March 23, 2009 10:56 AM
Harry's remark seems well-taken. The offending sentence could be appropriate, for example, in commenting on a past event that involved an assessment of an activity that took place before the assessment. "At the conclusion of the program, we took stock of our efforts. We were satisfied with what we had accomplished but I think we would have loved to have done even more."
Posted by: Bill Walderman | March 23, 2009 2:31 PM
I would have loved to learn all of the tenses before Spanish class in high school.
Sure I learned how to conjugate verbs and speak properly in every tense, but never heard "present perfect" as a grammar term until Spanish class, and that was to my detriment.
www.itsmewithocd.blogspot.com
Posted by: Bloggerwithocd | March 23, 2009 7:53 PM
Thanks for this one, John. This is one of my bugaboos and many seemingly well-educated people get this one wrong.
Posted by: Pam | March 25, 2009 8:25 AM