未來的事 - 古德明

2012年09月28日 - 蘋果

問：梁振英政府宣布啟德機場故址將興建只賣給港人的樓宇，有報紙評論說：「Let's assume that the developers would have built the flats anyway, even without the condition that they can only be sold to Hong Kongers（假設即使沒有『只售與港人』條款，地產商仍會興建這些樓宇）。」「Would have＋動詞」，不是應說過去的事嗎？這一句怎麼卻是說未來的事？

答：「Would have＋動詞」一般都是說過去的事，例如：If he had been more careful, he would have succeeded（要是他當時小心一點，就不會不成功）。

不過，這句式偶然也會用來說現在或未來的假設情況，那「would have＋動詞」和「would＋動詞」沒有什麼分別。英語學者斯旺的Practical English Usage就有以下例句：

（1）It would have been / It would be nice to go to Australia this winter, but there's no way we can do it（今年冬天，我們可以去澳洲就好了，只是實在沒辦法）。

（2）If my mother hadn't knocked my father off his bicycle thirty years ago, I wouldn't have been / I wouldn't be here now（要是三十年前家母沒有把腳踏車上的家父撞倒，我現在就不會在這裏）。這類「Would have＋動詞」句子，多帶「某事現在或未來已不可能如此」含義。

讀者示下那一句，would have built改為would build文法上是絕對可以的，只是would have built多了點「不受『只售與港人』條款限制已不可能」含義。