[Grammar] Migh not / might not have been

[Cynthia Garett]

Hi,

I would like to know which of these two phrases is correct.

He came back in the living room where his wife came down with her handbag untouched, suggesting that the man might not be there to steal.

OR

He came back in the living room where his wife came down with her handbag untouched, suggesting that the man might not have been there to steal.

Thank you.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Both could be correct in the right context.

In the first the man is still there, and in the second he isn't.

 

[emsr2d2]

I don't like "He came back in the living room where his wife came down ...". By using the word "where", I assume the writer meant that the wife entered the same room as her husband. I find that unnatural.

He came back into the living room and then his wife entered the room, carrying her handbag ...

 

[Rover_KE]

Cynthia, they are sentences – not phrases.