When his predecessor Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, was raided last August and a trove of thousands of government documents was discovered there, including several hundreds of classified papers, little would U.S. President Joe Biden have imagined that he would find himself in a similar sticky situation'
—The Hindu,24Jan 2023
I found this paragraph in an article in today's newspaper.
Little did he know means 'that he didn't know' so Little would he have imagined would mean perhaps 'he wouldn't have imagined'.
My question is how 'would have' is used here when there is no conditional or volitional element, where you wanted to do sth but didn't, in the sentence.
As those are the only conditions of using 'would have' so how it was used???
Best Answer
The use of the "would" form in "Little would he have imagiend..." invites the reader to think of an alternate reality in which he did imagine it. This is not, strictly speaking a conditional. Instead it uses teh subjunctive which is used to discuss statements contrary to fact, hypothetical statements, and wishes or requests. It is sometimes uoused with or as part of conditional statements.
In this case it really has not actual meaning beyond "He didn't imagine" but it emphasized the difference between what he might have imagined (but didn't) and what actually happened.