Tim Nikias wrote:
> "Some things had better been left imperfect" is what I wrote, I thought it
> expresses how it's more of a thought, than a fact, that some things
> shouldn't have been perfected. Not?

I'm just saying, as a native speaker of American english, the verb 
construction sounds awkward. While "had been left imperfect" is a good 
conjugation, putting the "better" in there without adjusting the tense 
throws the sentence off.

Hmmm... The problem, I think, is that "had been left imperfect" is 
(IIRC) future-perfect. It's something that's saying "when viewed from 
the future, this already had passed and continued for a while." "I had 
been running when..." Throwing the "better" in there negates the sense 
of the sentence, so there's an awkwardness in the phrasing. You're 
saying "as viewed from the future, it hasn't happened", but the sentence 
doesn't have any subjunctive in it to tell you it's a hypothetical. 
You're saying they *had* been left imperfect, then negating it, basically.

Maybe it sounds right if you're British or something? :-)  It was just 
kind of jarring, because it didn't sound right. "Some things would 
better have been left imperfect" is the closest I can think of. You need 
the "should" or "would" in there, methinks.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
    Luke, the Force is a powerful ally,
    second only to The QuickSave.

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