OT: British and US English question

[Tim B]

"If I had been late I would have missed the bus."

That is normal British English to me. I've come across a number of American writers who say the same
thing as:

"If I would have been late I would have missed the bus."

Is that correct American English?

Best wishes,
Tim Bourne.

[Efrem G Mallach]

Tim,

Not in my 78+ years of experience, Granted, I only spoke something approximating American English for about 76 of them. I can, however, envisage a process taking place over time in which "I had" is contracted to "I'd," which is then erroneously expanded to "I would."

You might try posting this question in the English Only forum of Word Reference Forums:

https://forum.wordreference.com/forums/english-only.6/

You'll have to register for the site, but it's free and (as far as I know) low-risk. There's a bit of overlap between its posters and Dixonary players, Besides myself, Steve Graham, who played up to about round 2850, posts there; the late Dodi Schultz was quite active; and there may well be more.

Efrem

=======================

[Debbie]

As an American, I would typically use the first option.

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[amal...@comcast.net]

Tim – I’d go further. As an American, I would always use the first option. The second option is neither grammatically correct, although I don’t have the technical vocabulary to explain exactly why it isn’t, nor idiomatic.

Alan

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[Judy Madnick]

I, too, would use the first option.

  

Judy

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Original Message

From: Debbie <chow...@gmail.com>

To: dixo...@googlegroups.com;

Date: 9/4/2020 9:14:40 AM

[Johnb - co.uk]

I would've used the first option but I  could've used the second option - could've now being the  standard abbreviation for 'could of' which appals me as meaningless

JohnnyB

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[Debbie]

Is this a case of "would've could've should've?" 

Very unhealthy.

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[Paul Keating]

I identify that use of would as an L2 error: Dutch speakers do it often because it is a direct rendering of an equivalent if-clause in Dutch. 

And it's not in my reference English grammar (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech & Svartvik), all 1120 pages of it, which is generally very thorough and reliable about BrE/AmE differences. Still, absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, I suppose. And it came out in 1972, so it describes the English of 50 years ago. Maybe it and I are both behind the times.

Any views on whether this is a generational thing? Are the writers all Generation Z?

P

[Johnb - co.uk]

might've been

John

On 04/09/2020 16:54, Debbie wrote:

Is this a case of "would've could've should've?" 

Very unhealthy.

Virus-free. www.avg.com

[Ryan McGill]

Around the PNW, I think it's pretty common to hear people say things like:

"If Ida been any later, I mighta missed the bus,"

or maybe:

"If I'd've been later, I prob'ly would've missed the bus."

I myself have said as much regularly, though I should note that both sides of my family spent a generation or two in the Illinois/Indiana area and so trade heavily in lower Great Lakes/midwestern idiom and slang.

[France International/Mike Shefler]

Polly prolly woulda missed the trolley.

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