It was as if I was seeing the young people inside them. Before I would have just seen the wrinkles.
What is the usage of "would have" in these sentences?
Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/older-and-wiser-h7jfkzjv2h3
It was as if I was seeing the young people inside them. Before I would have just seen the wrinkles.
What is the usage of "would have" in these sentences?
Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/older-and-wiser-h7jfkzjv2h3
The verb here, "would have seen" is an example of the third conditional. That verb tense is used for actions happening only under certain conditions, conditions which might have happened in the past, but never did (in reality). Therefore if you use "would have seen", you are talking about an action that is contrary to reality. It is a hypothetical situation.
Example: "If antibiotics had not been available, he would have died." ... but he did receive the medicine, therefore he did not die. So "would have died" is an action contrary to reality.
In the context of your article about the aging experiment, the conditions (that didn't happen) are probably the condition of not doing the aging experiment:
It was as if I was seeing the young people inside them. If I hadn't taken part in the aging experiment, I would have just seen the wrinkles.
But the entire "if" clause is replaced by the simple adverb "before". In other words, "Before [I took part in the aging experiment], I would have just seen..."