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If the hypothetic question is something like:

What was it like to live abroad?

What was prison like?

How hectic was your summer camp?

Please specify the grammar of the answer. Past perfect or present perfect, why does it qualify for one and not the other?

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    You would have had to have been there. OR You would have to have been there.
    – Jim
    Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 1:42
  • 3
    Or "You would have had to be there."?
    – 3N1GM4
    Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 12:56
  • You cannot use to had. When to is part of full infinitive, the verb after to must be in its base form (present simple). So only "to have" is correct.
    – Abbasi
    Commented Dec 30, 2016 at 20:35

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The questions are all about the completed past (nothing carrying on into the present), so your answer must be, too. But you need not use the perfect; any past will do.

You had to be there

You would have had to be there

You had to have been there

You would have had to have been there

You would have to have been there

All are about the past, and so they all work.

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