# Three consecutive “would have”s -- is this acceptable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-consecutive-would-have-s-is-this-acceptable/733633>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 5, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-consecutive-would-have-s-is-this-acceptable/733633 "2015-10-05T19:12:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Melia\_Antiqua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@Melia\_Antiqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melia_Antiqua)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-consecutive-would-have-s-is-this-acceptable/733633/1 "2015-10-05T19:12:28Z")

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The speaker said the following sentences, knowing her mother had already passed away some time ago. Given this fact, I wonder if I shouldn’t change the last two “would”s to “would have”s. But then again, I’m not too keen on bombarding the sentence with three “would have”s in a row. What’s your take on this? Many thanks.  
Man: But your mother used to be a lead maintenance engineer, right?

I **would have thought** fixing things **would be** the first thing she **would teach** you.

– vs –

I \*\*would have thought \*\*fixing things **would have been** the first thing she **would have taught** you.

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-consecutive-would-have-s-is-this-acceptable/733633/2 "2015-10-05T19:47:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I \*\*would have thought \*\*fixing things **would have been** the first thing she **would have taught** you.

I \*\* thought \*\*fixing things **was** the first thing she **taught** you.

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**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/three-consecutive-would-have-s-is-this-acceptable/733633/3 "2015-10-05T20:00:03Z")

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I’m surprised she didn’t teach you to fix things.