"You could have wrote"

[struck]

You could have wrote that in English.
You could have wrote, "That's better".

I know written should be used in both of these sentences, but I'm unable to explain why. "could" is a conditional verb as far as I know, plus the sentence is in present perfect tense. Is it due to the effect of latter? Do we have to use a past participle with present perfect tense?

Thanks

[banderas]

Originally Posted by struck

You could have wrote that in English.
You could have wrote, "That's better".

I know written should be used in both of these sentences, but I'm unable to explain why. "could" is a conditional verb as far as I know, plus the sentence is in present perfect tense. Is it due to the effect of latter? Do we have to use a past participle with present perfect tense?

Thanks

We can use 'could have' to talk about something somebody was capable of doing but didn't do.
I could have gone to Oxford University but I preferred Harvard.
Often, there is a sense of criticism.
You could have phoned me to let me know.

We can use 'couldn't have' to talk about something we were not capable of doing.
I couldn't have managed without you.
We can use 'could have' to speculate about what has happened. (We can also use 'may have' or 'might have' in these situations.)
She could have taken the earlier train.
See this link:

Learning English | BBC World Service

[David L.]

You could have wrote that in English.
You could have wrote, "That's better".

I know written should be used in both of these sentences, but I'm unable to explain why. "could" is a conditional verb as far as I know, plus the sentence is in present perfect tense. Is it due to the effect of latter? Do we have to use a past participle with present perfect tense?


Now I write
Yesterday I wrote
I have written this before
I am writing this now

The present perfect would be:
I have written this in English.
The conditional is then: "If you had ask me, I could have written it in German.