Learn English – “could not have been him” vs “could have not been him”

negationsubjunctives

Say a huge rock rolled down from a cliff and killed a passenger by the window of a passing-by bus which I was on. HOWEVER, before the rock hit the bus, I had switched seats with the poor man, the victim.

So I can say :

a.It could be me
b.It could have been me
c.It could not have been him
d.It could have not been him

Which is correct and why, please?

Best Answer

All of these are grammatically correct. In the situation you describe, talking about an "twist of fate", the most common expression would be:

That could have been me.

In this case the present perfect expresses a potential life experience, narrowly avoided.

However, the negative of this generally means simple lack of ability or potential, and not fate:

Larry could not have been (or simply could not be) the one who robbed that bank yesterday. He's on vacation in Belize.

Instead you would use a conditional:

If he hadn't switched seats with me, it would not have been him (who died that day).

or, alternately:

If we hadn't switched seats it would have been me (who died that day).

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