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The following sentence is from a text about a new genetic testing method which reveals whether a tumor is cancerous or not, without having to apply chemotherapy. BBC - Genetic testing spared baby unncessary chemotherapy

"We would not have been able to pick this up by any other test - genetic or otherwise," says Dr Behjati.

In this sentence, the structure "....would not have been able to pick..." is too wordy. And it seems that it is used to create a meaning which can also be created by another but shorter structure in the English language: "...could not have picked .....".

"We couldn't have picked this up by any other test - genetic or otherwise," says Dr Behjati.

So, as a non-native speaker, both sentences seem to have the same meaning to me. Do they to you, native speakers?

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  • In your opinion the structure "....would not have been able to pick..." is too wordy. I've no idea whether Dr Behjati is a native Anglophone or not, but I certainly wouldn't criticize his choice of phrasing. If pressed to distinguish the two, I'd say Dr Behjati's actual choice is slightly more emphatic, in that it tends towards We would never have been able to pick this up... But then again the other one could be "intensified" by We couldn't possibly have picked this up... Different people may prefer one version over the other for any number of reasons.
    – FumbleFingers
    Sep 26 at 14:34

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