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pearsonlongman.com

Can't have vs. couldn't have

Q:
Can these two modal perfect forms be used interchangeably or is
there any formal usage restriction in either case? Ihave found it
difficult to explain this to my students.
Posted 04 February 2003
A:
As you realize, references don't usually address can't have vs.
couldn't have directly.
One that does mention it, however, is Betty Azar, in in
Understanding and Using English Grammar, 3rd ed. (Pearson
longman, 2002). On page 181, she places can't have and
couldn't have in a chart showing their status on a scale of
probability. They are equal.
The title of the chart is "DEGREES OF CERTAINTY: PAST TIME,"
and the section of the chart is "PAST TIME: NEGATIVE,"
(distinguishable from the section above it called "PAST TIME:
AFFIRMATIVE.")

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In answer to the question "Why didn't Sam eat?":

Sam wasn't hungry. (The speaker is 100% sure that this is the
reason.)
Sam couldn't have been hungry.
Sam can't have been hungry. (The speaker believes - is 99%
certain -that it is impossible for Sam to have been hungry.)
Sam must not have been hungry. (The speaker is making a
logical conclusion. We can say he's about 95% certain.)
Sam may not have been hungry.
Sam might not have been hungry. (The speaker is less than
50% certain, and is mentioning one possibility.)
So, can't have and couldn't have are equal in meaning when
they express the impossibility of something. Stylistically, couldn't
have seems more formal than can't have. In writing, could not
have would probably be used, especially in referring to something
historical:
George Washington could not have known Abraham Lincoln they lived at different times.
The original inhabitants could not have eaten peanuts peanuts were unknown at the time.

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When couldn't have is used as a past conditional, can't have

can not be substituted, in any style:
The team could not/ couldn't [not can't] have won the game if
they had not trained so intensively.
I could not/ couldn't [not can't] have passed the course without
your help.
My father could not/ couldn't [not can't] have had the success
he enjoyed had my mother not always encouraged him.
See Marilyn's posting below for an insightful examination of
couldn't have vs. can't have.
A:
Is there a difference in usage between can't have and couldn't
have? They are very similar in their degree of certainty, as
described in Azar. But are they truly interchangeable, as
Anonymous asks? They seem not to be fully interchangeable, not
only in historical writing, as Rachel points out, but in other
contexts as well.*
Can't have seems to be used a great deal in present contexts
where the events being talked about are recent in time. It
expresses a judgment about a recent action or situation, a context
in which the issues are still fresh and relevant to the present. One
use is in present real conditionals, e.g., in sentence (a):

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(a) Welcome to my personal page

about the eclipse of the sun, if
you find any of this informative
then I can't have written it right.
(If A is true, then B is also true.)
Other uses of can't have express simple belief in the impossibility
of a (recent) past event or situation, as in (b), (c) and (d):
(b) Her favourite film is Kes, and she
talks with awe about the moment
when the boy finds the dead
bird. She thinks, from the look on
his face, that the child actor
can't have known in advance
that the bird was dead.
(c) If he knew there were blacks in
all the other countries, but he
didn't know there were blacks in
Brazil, he'd have to have thought
Brazil was somehow an
exception to the rule. But he
can't have believed that. No
sane person could. Brazil has
the second-largest black
population of any country in the
world.

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(d) Please do let me know if you find

problems [in the program] as I'm
quite sure I can't have found
every bug.
The underlying message of these assertions above (b), (c), and
(d) is "It isn't possible (in the present) that..." It often expresses
strong disbelief, or even refusal to believe something.
Or the speaker may have objective evidence to support the idea of
impossibility, as in (e), (f) and (g):
(e) Tom can't have written this
because it is in French and he
doesn't know French.
(f) I've never written an Improv part.
Therefore, I can't have written
bad Improv.
(g) From what you have said, you
can't have known the new man
very long.
In each of these cases (e), (f) and (g) above the speaker has
a warrant for the assertion being made. And in every case so far,
the topic under consideration is a recent situation or event rather
than a remote past situation or series of events.
Additionally, can't have is used to express a meaning that has

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nothing to do with possibility. Can't have is used for present

(negative) obligation or permission. For example, in (h) below:
(h) The Oscar rules state that the
song must be recorded for "use
in a film" prior to any other
use...i.e., you have to write it for
the film, you can't have written
it before (even it was never
recorded), and you have to
record it for the film before it can
be re-recorded, remixed, etc. on
your own.
This use of can't have, which means "You are not allowed to have
(written...)" is totally different in meaning from couldn't have,
which is not used for negative permission in the past.
An interesting feature of can't have that was revealed in the
search is that many instances of its use are in ES/FL lessons. This
fact, together with the ubiquity of can't have in fiction writing, may
say something about the practical usefulness of the form,
suggesting that its use in everyday speech is probably rather
limited. In fact, the proportion of instances of can't have in
comparison with couldn't have is very small. For example, can't
have known occurs 500 times, whereas couldn't have known
occurs 14,500 times. Can't have been occurs 15,900 times, but
couldn't have been occurs 229,000 times!
Couldn't have expresses past impossibility of an idea being true.

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It has a less complex range of meanings than can't have.

In addition to its use in full past hypothetical conditionals, as
Rachel has explained, it is found in incomplete conditionals,
utterances in which the if- clause is merely implied. For example,
in (i), (j), and (k) below:
(i) I couldn't have done it without
my family [if I hadn't had my
family]
(j) The timing couldn't have been
worse [if circumstances had
been different]
(k) I couldn't have written a better
script [if I'd tried to do it]
These ideas have no present tense counterpart with can't have.
Non-conditional uses of couldn't have abound. It occurs to
express impossibility in past time narratives or commentary, as in
(l), (m), and (n) below:
(l) [He] couldn't have known that
just six hours later, he, the only
male flight attendant on
American Airlines Flight 11,
would die suddenly when...

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(m) As a young woman who had

never given birth before, she
couldn't have known what the
experience of childbirth would be
like...
(n) Athletic Director Edgar Johnson
couldn't have known what he
was getting into when he made
that fateful decision to cut the
Delaware wrestling program on
June 18
With actions that take some ability or skill, it means didn't have the
ability or skill to, as in (o), (p), and (q) below:
(o) I wish I had written Nowhere
Man, by Aleksandar Hemon, but
I couldn't have written it,
because no one can write like
Hemon.
(p) The imagination was there and
so was the humor that was to
appear later in my books, but my
teachers didn't seem to notice,
except for one who said, "You
couldn't have written this."

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(q) ... So, anyway, I could have

possibly written about the
incidents, but I couldn't have
written about them effectively.
This use of couldn't have embodies the root meaning (ability or
capability) of the modals can and could.
To sum up: the two verb phrases share a similar degree of
probability, as seen in Azar. But there are differences in usage
between them:
1) Can't have tends to be used
more in present contexts or
contexts about recent situations
or events, while couldn't have is
used more in definitely past
contexts.
2) Can't have is found in a lot of
fictional writing, perhaps more
than is couldn't have.
3) Can't have is used to express
negative permission, while
couldn't have carries no such
meaning.
4) Can't have is used much less
than couldn't have--a small

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percentage of usage. This fact

may guide teachers in deciding
how much time to spend
teaching each of the forms.
Marilyn Martin
*The example sentences have been taken from a Google on- line
search.
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