Learn English – “Should already have” or “should have already”

meaning-in-contextsentence-constructionword-order

I think this new law is great and should already have exist earlier.

This sentence doesn’t seem correct to me. I don't know what, but something is disturbing me. Is it the tense of some verb? Or a false construction?

Best Answer

You're right, there is a tense problem. "Should already have exist" should be "should already have existed." This is the past progressive (or past continuous) tense combined with a modal verb "should." The auxiliary "have" cannot be combined with the present tense form of a verb: it always takes a past participle.

A more idiomatic way to say the same thing is:

I think this new law is great and should have been passed earlier!

But the original version is grammatical when "exist" is corrected to "existed."