What is the meaning of the below sentences?
a) Robin said it appeared that the intention of Lubitz had been "to destroy the aircraft".
b) The prosecutor said that this action could only have been "voluntary".
and if I say
a) Robin said it appeared that the intention of Lubitz was "to destroy the aircraft".
b) The prosecutor said that this action could only be "voluntary".
Best Answer
The first two imply that the action is finished while the bottom two imply that it is ongoing... case A is a bit more complicated because it's past tense and there's not as much difference between them so I'll use a similar example to case B that's a bit clearer:
The hair was brown at some point in the past. Maybe she dyed it or it went grey but there's no requirement that it's still brown.
The hair is still brown. For some reason, the woman can not change her hair color.
I'll admit this is a bit absurd but it's the simplest way of showing the difference.