Could have been

Minsi: “Could’ve been so right” itu artinya apa dan tenses apa ya mr? Thanks sebelumnya.

Buttercup: Wah kalau translate ke indo itu, kadang agak membingungkan kalau hanya sepotong-sepotong. Tapi saya mau coba jawab ya, kalo salah mohon dibenerin ya Mr. Bhaskara.

Ini contoh kalimat dari saya:

You could have been in the right position if you didn’t break their car window first.

Kalimat di atas akan saya artikan sebagai berikut:

Kamu bisa saja di posisi yg benar kalau kamu tidak memecahkan jendela mobil mereka terlebih dahulu.

The fact is ” you broke their car window and you’re not in the right position now“

Sebenarnya ada banyak makna dari could have or can have.

Menurut sumber ini, we can use ‘could have‘ to talk about something somebody was capable of doing but didn’t do.

I could have gone to Oxford University but I preferred Harvard.
She could have married him but she didn’t want to.
They could have bought a house here 20 years ago but chose not to.

Often, there is a sense of criticism.

You could have phoned me to let me know.
They could have helped me instead of just sitting there.
I could have done more to help you. Sorry.

We can use ‘couldn’t have’ to talk about something we were not capable of doing.

I couldn’t have managed without you.
I couldn’t have got the job. He was always going to appoint his nephew.
I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more. Thank you for a lovely day.

We can use ‘could have’ to speculate about what has happened. (We can also use ‘may have‘ or ‘might have‘ in these situations.)

She could have taken the earlier train.
Simon could have told her.
They could have overheard what we said.

We can also use ‘can have‘ to speculate about what has happened but only in questions and negative sentences and with words such as ‘hardly‘, ‘never‘ and ‘only‘.

Can she have forgotten about our meeting?
He can’t have seen us.
They can hardly have thought that I was not interested in the job.

We can also use ‘could have‘ to speculate about something that didn’t happen.

You could have broken your neck, jumping out the window like that.
He could have hurt somebody, throwing a bottle out of the window like that.
I could have done well in my exam if I’d worked harder.

You can also use ‘could have‘ to talk about possible present situations that have not happened.

I could have been earning a lot as an accountant but the work was just too boring.
He could have been Prime Minister now but he got involved in a big financial scandal.
They could have been the market leaders now if they had taken his advice.

Tenses yang dipakai saya agak ragu, tapi menurut saya itu Modal Past Perfect.. (ntah ada atau nga ya tenses seprti itu) Hahhahah… kalau saya uda lupa sama nama-nama tenses, tapi hanya pola-polanya yang diingat.

Swara Bhaskara: Thanks Buttercup for chipping in and for the info. There’s a small suggestion for the example you provided. Because the fact is in the simple past tense (i.e. You broke their car window), its corresponding conditional form should be:

“If you hadn’t broken their car window“.

Mengenai example yang diberikan Minsi, mungkin konteksnya, misalnya, sbb:

I said B. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The correct one could be A.

Konteks yang sudah terjadi in the past ini, dapat kita expresikan dengan menggunakan pola kalimat pengandaian menjadi:

If I had said A, I could’ve been so right. (Jika aku (telah) bilang A, aku bisa jadi sangat benar).

Atau, kalau kita balik posisinya:

I could’ve been so right if I had said A.

Apa nama tensisnya? Pola ini sebenarnya bukan pola tensis tapi lebih merupakan aspek dalam bahasa Inggris, which for the sake of memorizing its pattern more easily, di sini saya sebut past future perfect tense, dimana modal will or can dst di Future perfect tense berubah menjadi would or could.