I could have passed that exam, but I didn't have enough time to study.
Have you ever been in that situation before? Well, to be honest,
I couldn't have passed that exam even if I had time to study.
That's because I didn't even know we were having an exam. Let's study together.
Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from New York City.
And here's your English teacher, Michael. Alright, thank you John,
and thanks everyone. It's Michael here from Happy English and I help people speak
English better. And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode six sixty nine.
Past modal could have. Today, I'm going to start a series of podcast
tests to help you with some of the tricky grammar points that come up on
the TOIC exam. I hope this will come in handy for you if you're
taking the exam, and even if not, I'm sure you can use this
grammar in your everyday English conversations. In this lesson, let's look at the
past modal verb could have. By the way, the basic grammar pattern goes
like this, we use could have or could not have, followed by a
past participle verb. You could say things like could have gone, could not
have eaten, could have worked, could not have studied, and so on.
Could have and could not have are used in two different ways. Let's
check them out. First of all, we use could have to show that
something was possible in the past but it didn't happen. Could have highlights a
missed opportunity or a different choice that was possible. For example, imagine that
you went to an Italian restaurant last night. It was possible to have pasta
or pizza, and you had pasta. In this situation, you could say
I could have had pizza, but I ordered pasta. Could have shows us
that pizza was an option, but it was not the choice I made.
Here are some other examples. After studying for weeks, I could have passed
the exam, but I got nervous during the test and made some silly mistakes.
Sarah could have been a doctor if she had pursued a career in medicine,
but she chose to become a lawyer instead. Katie could have won the
race, but she twisted her ankle during the final sprint. Next, we
use could not have. When we talk about something that was not possible in
the past. Could not have is used to express situations where something was beyond
our capability or simply not feasible. Suppose someone helped you move a heavy desk,
and you're grateful for their assistance. You could say, thanks for your
help, that desk is heavy and I couldn't have moved it without you.
In this example, using could not have emphasizes that without their help, move
the desk was impossible for me. Here are some other examples with could not
have. My flight was delayed, so I couldn't have made it to the
meeting on time. Even if I had left earlier. We couldn't have attended
the concert because all of the tickets were sold out in minutes. The customer
complained that their order didn't arrive yesterday afternoon, but I explained to them that
the package couldn't have arrived yesterday because we shipped it yesterday morning. In summary,
could have talks about what was possible in the past but didn't happen.
Could not have talks about what wasn't possible in the past. Keep in mind
the best way to remember this grammar is to take the phrase, write it
in a sentence that's true for you or true in your world, and then
memorize your sentences. Well, that's it for today's lesson. Speaking of took,
keep a lookout from my Newtec Preparation course TOIIC Mastery coming next month.
By the way, why don't you join my podcast Learners study group There you
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past and in the future. And each episode now has exercises where you can
practice this English point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more
or to see some of the example sentences from this lesson, just visit my
Happy English dot com and choose podcast lesson six sixty nine. Remember, learning
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