Let's suppose that you face an old friend on the street accidentally for the first time after a couple of years and you are going to express your surprise out of this coincidence. Which one of the bold sentences below works naturally in this sense?
1) Oh Tedd. What a councidence! Long time no see! What are you doing here? I never would have thought that I would see you here.
2) Oh Tedd. What a councidence! Long time no see! What are you doing here? I've never thought that I would see you here.
3) Oh Tedd. What a councidence! Long time no see! What are you doing here? I never thought that I would see you here.
Best Answer
I’d say the first one works best, though 3) also can work. 2) implies that the speaker has never actively thought before that they would see Tedd in that place.
The first one works because it’s a hypothetical situation. The speaker is surprised to see Tedd, and thereby they’re expressing their surprise at this presence by saying “I never would have thought...” In other words, the speaker would never expect to see Tedd there. This is one of those rules that I know, but I don’t know why I know it. It’s almost “just because,” but hopefully someone else can better explain. I do hope that this makes sense though.
Also, a couple spelling errors: it should be “coincidence” and “that.” :)