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This from the BBC website Lost wallet found 5 years on

It is about a story in which somebody lost his wallet 5 years ago after he watched a game in a rugby stadium, and it was found 5 years later. Here is a sentence from the text:

....Mr Joiner said: "I never thought it could have been in the stand because of the number of people you would have thought would have sat here."

The part of the sentence "...you would have thought would have sat here." drew my attention. We don't see that structure very often. So, I wondered why it might have been used.

Why is it "...you would have thought would have sat..." but not "...you would think would have sat..."?

I did some research and found similar discussions, but they are not clear enough for me, as a non-native speaker.

So, I want to ask: Is it simply because the editor of the text assumes "the activity of thinking" already took place and cannot happen any longer?

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  • It's a good question, the example involves the language of speculation.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jul 17 at 20:16
  • Isn't "...you would think..." enough for speculation? Why specifically "....you would have thought....? Or are they both the same?
    – yunus
    Jul 17 at 20:18
  • Possibly that's how Mr Joiner talks, it's his unique idiolect. Remember it's spoken, and depending on the pitch and how it is stressed, the meaning would be perfectly understandable. It's not wrong, but neither is your suggestion.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jul 17 at 20:22
  • Maybe to many native speakers the example appears unremarkable but the repetition of "would have + pp" in such close proximity is interesting nevertheless
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jul 17 at 20:26
  • The sentence attributed to "Mr. Joiner" is poor diction in some dialects, and colloquial in others. But any listener would understand the meaning, so it's not quite "wrong" in any speech. To stay on the safe side with "would" or "were", always make sure it forms a "third conditional", in the construction "would have + <past participle>" - you should be able to answer the question that starts "WHEN would <subject> have...." So, the above would be more universally natural if Mr. Joiner had said: "because of the number of people that might have sat here."
    – BadZen
    Jul 25 at 2:36

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what I think is that:
you would have thought➡️the thing you once thought of, and it is not what you are thinking of now.( you changed your mind)

you would think➡️what you are thinking of at the very moment.

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    – gotube ♦
    2 days ago

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