TinyProf's Grammar Breakdown 🎓

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1. What We're Solving

You want to know whether these idiomatic expressions — "would just as soon," "would sooner," "had rather" — have fixed grammatical forms, or whether you can swap, remove, or substitute their auxiliary verbs and still be correct.

Specifically: Cambridge says "I would just as soon he had eaten" — but is "I would have just as soon he eaten" equally valid?

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2. The Approach

To answer this, we need to think about three things in layers:

• 1. What type of expression these idioms are (frozen vs. flexible)
• 2. What grammatical role each auxiliary verb plays
• 3. Whether substituting auxiliaries preserves or destroys the meaning

Think of it like a recipe 🍳 — some ingredients are interchangeable, but some are load-bearing. Swapping them collapses the dish entirely.

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3. Step-by-Step Solution

🔹 Step 1: Understand What These Idioms Actually Are

Expressions like "would just as soon," "would sooner," and "had rather" are called semi-frozen idiomatic modal expressions. This means:

• They carry modal meaning (preference, hypothetical willingness)
• Their structure is historically fixed — they evolved from older English grammar
• They resist restructuring the way ordinary verb phrases don't

> "Had rather" is actually an archaic survival — the "had" here doesn't mean past tense; it was an old subjunctive/modal form. Today we more commonly say "would rather."

📌 Key insight: Because these are idioms, their internal structure isn't built from regular grammar rules — they ARE the rule. You can't freely rearrange their parts.

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🔹 Step 2: Break Down "I would just as soon he had eaten"

Let's identify every moving part:

| Part | Function | |------|----------| | I | Subject of main clause | | would | Modal auxiliary — expresses preference/hypothetical | | just as soon | Idiomatic adverbial — means "equally prefer" | | he had eaten | Subordinate clause with past perfect |

Why "had eaten" (past perfect)?

The subordinate clause after "would just as soon" uses the past perfect to signal hypothetical or counterfactual meaning — similar to how we use past forms in conditionals:

> "I wish he had eaten" — past perfect signals something that didn't happen or is desired retroactively.

This follows the same pattern as subjunctive-style conditionals:

• "I'd rather he had gone" ✅
• "I wish she had called" ✅

The past perfect here is doing serious grammatical work — it signals the hypothetical, backward-looking nature of the preference.

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🔹 Step 3: Examine the Alternative Form

Now look at the alternative: "I would have just as soon he eaten"

The structure "would have" normally creates the conditional perfect:

• "I would have eaten" = I didn't eat, but I might have (under different circumstances)

But there's a critical problem:

> ❌ "I would have just as soon he eaten"

• "he eaten" is not grammatical — "eaten" needs an auxiliary (had eaten, has eaten)
• "would have just as soon" breaks the idiomatic unit — "have" belongs to "would have," but then what do you do with "just as soon"?
• The sentence has two incomplete grammatical ideas that don't connect properly

Think of it this way:

``` ✅ [would] + [just as soon] + [he had eaten] ↑ ↑ modal idiom past perfect subordinate clause

❌ [would have] + [just as soon] + [he eaten] ↑ ↑ conditional perfect INCOMPLETE — missing auxiliary! ```

The alternative version breaks the idiom apart and tries to inject a "have" that doesn't belong to the structure.

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🔹 Step 4: Can These Forms Vary At All?

Here's what IS flexible:

| Expression | Example | Status | |------------|---------|--------| | would just as soon | I'd just as soon he left (present context) | ✅ Standard | | would just as soon | I'd just as soon he had left (past context) | ✅ Standard | | would sooner | I'd sooner he told me | ✅ Standard | | had rather | I had rather go | ✅ Archaic but acceptable | | would rather | I'd rather he had gone | ✅ Modern standard |

What changes is tense within the subordinate clause depending on time reference — NOT swapping "would" for "would have" inside the idiom itself.

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🔹 Step 5: The Golden Rule for These Idioms

> 🏆 The modal ("would/had") is part of the frozen idiomatic frame. The past perfect ("had eaten") in the subordinate clause does the hypothetical heavy lifting. These two jobs must NOT be confused or merged.

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4. The Answer

Only one form is grammatically standard:

✅ "I would just as soon he had eaten" — Cambridge is correct.

• "would" = part of the fixed idiomatic expression
• "had eaten" = past perfect in the subordinate clause, signaling the hypothetical/counterfactual meaning

❌ "I would have just as soon he eaten" — This is not grammatical because:

• 1. It breaks the idiomatic unit by inserting "have" where it doesn't belong
• 2. It leaves "he eaten" as an incomplete verb phrase
• 3. The two grammatical structures (conditional perfect + idiom) are incompatible here

There is only one correct standard form. The alternative version is an error, likely produced by confusing the conditional perfect ("would have done") with the idiomatic modal structure ("would just as soon").

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5. Memory Tip 🧠

> "The idiom is the boss!" > > Think of "would just as soon" as a single unit — like a stamp. You wouldn't cut a stamp in half to add something. The past perfect (had eaten) lives in the other clause, doing its own job. Two separate jobs, two separate places — don't mix them up!

Alternatively, compare it to "I'd rather" which works identically:

• ✅ "I'd rather he had gone" → same structure, same logic
• ❌ "I'd have rather he gone" → breaks the same way

This kind of critical thinking about why grammar works the way it does is what separates good writers from great ones! 🌟