What is the difference between the two sentences:
- I needed to tell you something.
- I needed to have told you something.
And how does this "to have done" work? Can we use it with all verbs?
asked Nov 15, 2017 at 17:25
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2#1 sounds like fluent, idiomatic speech, while #2 sounds awful. I could readily accept I should have told you something, but I don't like the wording in your question. (I'm not sure how that assessment projects onto other verbs, though, which is why I'm only commenting for now.)– J.R. ♦Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 17:39
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What about "meant"? "I meant to have told you" vs "I meant to tell you".– SovereignSunCommented Nov 15, 2017 at 17:42
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Why would you opt for I meant to have told you when you can use the more natural and less clunky I meant to tell you?– J.R. ♦Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 17:44
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@J.R. I do use it, but that curiosity of mine is pushing hard.– SovereignSunCommented Nov 15, 2017 at 17:45
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1Curiosity is not a good reason to deviate from the simple past. What kind of scenario or context might prompt you to do this?– J.R. ♦Commented Nov 15, 2017 at 17:49
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1 Answer
The perfect infinitive pushes the need to a prior past, a past earlier than another past.
I need to have a doctor look at this festering wound. It is giving me a great deal of pain.
I needed to have a doctor look at that festering wound. It was giving me a great deal of pain.
I needed to have had a doctor look at that festering wound. It had been giving me a great deal of pain. But I did not, and thus I moved on to the astral plane, so that now I can speak to you only via Madame Sosostris.
It sounds better if you change need to to should but then the time of obligation is the reference time.
