The conditional perfect is a grammatical construction that combines the conditional mood with perfect aspect. A typical example is the English would have written. The conditional perfect is used to refer to a hypothetical, usually counterfactual, event or circumstance placed in the past, contingent on some other circumstance (again normally counterfactual, and also usually placed in the past). Like the present conditional (a form like would write), the conditional perfect typically appears in the apodosis (the main clause, expressing the consequent) in a conditional sentence.
Read more about Conditional Perfect: English, Other Languages
Famous quotes containing the words conditional and/or perfect:
“Conditional love is love that is turned off and on....Some parents only show their love after a child has done something that pleases them. “I love you, honey, for cleaning your room!” Children who think they need to earn love become people pleasers, or perfectionists. Those who are raised on conditional love never really feel loved.”
—Louise Hart (20th century)
“One of the reasons, surely, why women have been credited with less perfect veracity than men is that the burden of conventional falsehood falls chiefly on them.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)