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Lyn would have been sending.....

 
 
Reply Sat 2 Mar, 2019 10:52 pm
The following passage is taken from the book "My Autobiography" by Alex Ferguson. It's about his retirement from football in May 2013. I will post my question at the end of it.

At home I locked myself in. Jason, my lawyer and Lyn sent texts simultaneously at the point the announcement was made. Lyn would have been sending texts consecutively for 15 minutes. Apparently 38 newspapers in the world carried the news on the front page, including the New York Times. There were 10- and 12-page supplements in the British papers.

My question is this:

Why is it "Lyn would have been sending texts......" and not "Lyn had been sending texts....."?

Thank you
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izzythepush
 
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Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 06:01 am
@paok1970,
This is Alex Ferguson writing, not Hilary Mantel. The former is a football manager, not a profession known for its command of language, whilst the latter has won the Man Booker prize.

Ferguson's words sound more conversational which is probably why he used them, and if he had a ghost writer he's probably being directly quoted so as to make it sound like it was written by Ferguson.

In short, don't look at autobiographies written by celebrities and sports people for examples of good English.
paok1970
 
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Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 09:45 am
@izzythepush,
In your own words, how should the sentence in question read?

Thanks again for your kind help.
izzythepush
 
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Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 10:04 am
@paok1970,
It's fine, I can't see anything wrong with it.
paok1970
 
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Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 10:24 am
@izzythepush,
I'm sorry to get back to you but I still need your help.

What I find confusing is the use of would.

Again, many, many thanks for your kind help.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 10:43 am
@paok1970,
It's a colloquialism, something would have been happening while something else was going on. Two things happening at the same time in different places.
paok1970
 
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Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 11:28 am
@izzythepush,
Would you please give me a couple of examples of would used with the same meaning as above?

Thank you.
izzythepush
 
  2  
Reply Sun 3 Mar, 2019 12:21 pm
@paok1970,
Mary would have been in the kitchen when her husband was on his way home.

Lawyers would have been working behind the scenes while negotiations were going on.
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