Do the sentences
She might be only 28, but Jodie
Whittaker….
and
My parents would have walked along the
Barrow
wrongly suggest doubt, or are they normal usage? Are there names for these constructions?
Taken from An Irishman's Diary.
I googled "would have spent their time".
Many cases were counterfactuals ("… otherwise they would have spent their time…”)
But plenty simply describe past events, as the in the usage sited above.
I couldn't detect a regional bias.
As an Irish-English speaker this usage is unremarkable.
For example, I might say
This is the exact spot where Caesar
would have crossed the Rubicon
I think the intention is to evoke the event rather than just record it.
Best Answer
Having skimmed now the linked article, I would say that the first construction is perfectly grammatical and normal-sounding to me as a speaker of American English, though may would work equally well as might in that sentence. Merriam-Webster says for might that it can be “a polite alternative to may”, and their definition of may gives as part of sense 3 “used in auxiliary function expressing … concession <he may be slow but he is thorough>”, which I suppose is the sense here.
The second sentence, though, with the implication that the parents did walk along the Barrow, is strange to me.