I would have liked to have seen her / ...to see her.

[jesus]

Hello.

What is the difference in meaning between these sentences? When do I have to use a) or b)?

a) I would have liked to have seen her.
b) I would have liked to see her.

Thanks.

[Marius Hancu]

to have seen her: before the moment of liking

to see her: at the time, in parallel with, at the moment of liking

Both in the past.

to have ...
shows completion, precedence

[Bridget]

I think they mean the same and the temporal reference is the same in each.

[Marius Hancu]

-----
Please take a look at the two replies from B. When should we use which ?

A: Oh dear, nobody has cut the grass.

B: John was supposed to do that.

B: John was supposed to have done that.

....


On the other hand, if the total completion of the action is important, the perfect infinitive expresses that idea more accurately than the simple infinitive. It's as if the speaker were saying "He was supposed to have the grass all cut by now."

Was supposed to do/to have done
http://thegrammarexchange.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/340600179/m/4051027123?r=4051027123#4051027123
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[Bridget]

On the other hand, if the total completion of the action is important, the perfect infinitive expresses that idea more accurately than the simple infinitive. It's as if the speaker were saying "He was supposed to have the grass all cut by now."

Why is the "total completion of the action" important here, Marius? The completion of which action?


a) I would have liked to have seen her.
b) I would have liked to see her.

[Bridget]

And:

a) I would have liked to have seen her face when you told her.
b) I would have liked to see her face when you told her.

Difference?

[Marius Hancu]

Hello.

What is the difference in meaning between these sentences? When do I have to use a) or b)?

a) I would have liked to have seen her.
b) I would have liked to see her.


You need to beef up your sentences with additional appropriate context for clarity:

a) I would have liked to have seen her before/by the time we met. [precedence

b) At the time/Just then/Right at that moment, I would have liked to see her. [simultaneity

[Bridget]

Do the same with this one, Marius:

With whom on those golden summer evenings I should have liked to have taken a stroll in the hayfield.—Thackeray.

[Marius Hancu]

With whom on those golden summer evenings I should have liked to have taken a stroll in the hayfield.—Thackeray.Fowler, a greater grammarian no doubt than Thackeray (whom I love) finds it objectionable, and so IMHO do I:

"To have taken means simply to take; the implication of non-fulfillment that justified the perfects above is here needless, being already given in I should have liked, and the double have is ugly in sound. Similar are:"

[other examples from the classics, visible at the link]

The King's English Abridged for School Use
By Henry Watson Fowler, p. 82
http://books.google.com/books?id=mGQSLkz5OIQC&pg=PA82&dq=%22should+have+liked+to+have+taken%22
------

[Bridget]

Fowler, a greater grammarian no doubt than Thackeray

And greater than you, I imagine.


So for you, Marius, "I would have liked to have seen her" can never mean "I would have liked seeing her", right?

[Rusty]

I think they mean the same and the temporal reference is the same in each.
These don't strike me as exactly the same.
a) I would have liked to have seen her, but it didn't work out that way.
b) I would have liked to see her, but it won't be possible now.

[MrPedantic]

To my mind:

a) I would have liked to have seen her.
b) I would have liked to see her.

Each sentence positions the speaker at a moment in the past (call it X).

In the first sentence, X is the point in relation to which the act of seeing would have been in the (recent) past, had things been different.

In the second sentence, X is the point at which the act of seeing would have been in progress, had things been different.

Thus if both sentences refer to the same event, b) is imaginarily later than a).

(However, imaginary pasts are almost as unreliable as real pasts; I would be interested in any counter examples.)

MrP