Past Speculation...

[Kerim]

"I'd have thought" or in other words "I could have thought" is a past speculation form, isn't it?


And i don't understand it meaning of that(exactly). Could you talk about more past speculation???

[Humble]

Kerim, I think I'd can be either should or would, but not could.
The same old story - to get a correct answer you should give the context, not just a piece of a sentence, or even a sentence.

[MrPedantic]

Rather, it's present speculation about a past event:

1. I would have thought Portugal were quite easy to beat.

— NB From this sentence as it stands, it's not possible to say whether Portugal were in fact beaten.

"Could have thought" is sometimes used to speculate about the possibility of an imaginary past event; or in the negative, to speculate about the possibility of a real past event:

2. I could have thought you were a burglar, and hit you over the head with a poker!

— i.e. when I heard you coming in through the window at 3am, there was a possibility that I might think you were a burglar.

3. He couldn't have thought the letter was for him. If he had done, he would have opened it.

— i.e. it wasn't possible that he thought the letter was for him, etc.

All the best,

MrP

[Kerim]

Thanks...