I am doing exercises for English and I am asked to match 1 and 2 with A and B, but the sentences look very much alike to me.
1: "I don't believe the plan succeeded"
2: "It wasn't really possible for the plan to succeed"
A: "The plan couldn't have succeeded"
B: "The plan can't have succeeded!"
Can anybody distinguish the meanings of these sentences?
Best Answer
In these cases, "can't have" is being used to denote disbelief or incredulity, while "couldn't have" is being used to denote an impossibility.
Can and could are modal verbs, and represent present and preterite forms respectively. The preterite is not necessarily used to refer to past time, such as in this case, where it's being used in the subjunctive mood, expressing the possibility of something occurring.