Tuesday, September 3, 2013

future - 'They will have' to express a past event. Is this BrE only?

If the Police shut the High Street one day and my colleague asks me why, I may say to them :




They will probably have done that because of the accident this morning,




is this peculiar to BrE ?




'They will have done' is a future expression. But I am speaking of a past event.
I could say 'they would have done that because ...' or 'they did that because ...' which both express past events.



But I often express 'will have' to denote something that is past.



Does AmE do this as well ?

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