I had better have cleaned up the yesterday.

[JACEK1]

Hello everybody!

I know that the structure "I had better + bare inffininitive" is widespread.

What about the past form of "I had better + bare infinitive", that is, "I had better + perfect infinitive"?

Is it possible to say "I had better have cleaned up the yesterday" and is such structure frequently used?

Thank you.

 

[Rover_KE]

No, it's never used by native speakers.

Delete 'the' before 'yesterday'.

 

[bhaisahab]

"I had better have cleaned up the yesterday."
This makes no sense at all. Do you mean "I should have cleaned up yesterday"?

 

[emsr2d2]

It doesn't make any sense in the first person singular. If I were away from home and spoke to my partner or child, I might say "You had better have cleaned the house yesterday [or there will be trouble when I get in!]".

 

[JACEK1]

I admit to making a mistake. I shouldn't have written "the" before "yesterday".

Suppose, I will write "I had better have done my homework yesterday". Is such structure acceptable or should it be replaced by, say, "I should have done my homework yesterday" or "I would like to have done my homework yesterday".

Thank you.

 

[bhaisahab]

"I had better have done my homework yesterday".
This is incorrect.

 

[Tarheel]

"I should have done my homework yesterday" :tick:
or "I would like to have done my homework yesterday".:tick:

"I should have done my homework yesterday" is most usual (of all the options) and most easily understood.

 

[JACEK1]

To sum up. Judging from your answers, it follows that only "I had better + bare infinitive" is widespread and acceptable.