It looks / looked to had / have been

[sb70012]

Hi,
Suppose that we are talking about a sentence which is not used these days:

1. It looks to had been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
2. It looked to had been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
3. It looks to have been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
4. It looked to have been fashionable in the past or ancient times.

Thank you

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hi,
Suppose that we are talking about a sentence which is not used these days:

1. It looks to had been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
2. It looked to had been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
3. It looks to have been fashionable in the past or ancient times.
4. It looked to have been fashionable in the past or ancient times.

Thank you

I don't believe 1 and 2 are correct. Number 3 and 4 are correct and in current use.

See the Ngram here: https://books.google.com/ngrams/gra... to have been;,c0;.t1;,looks to have been;,c0

 

[sb70012]

Thanks for answering. But do you have any source from dictionaries or other contexts about the usage of "look to be"?
I mean, some say that it can't be used with infinitive and only the word "seem" works like that. That's why I am in deep thinking.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Thanks for answering. But do you have any source from dictionaries or other contexts about the usage of "look to be"?
I mean, some say that it can't be used with infinitive and only the word "seem" works like that. That's why I am in deep thinking.

I am not sure what you are asking. The phrase itself has an infinitive in it. The word "seem" can replace "look" in most of these uses.

That looks to be a dog house of some sort.
That seems to be a dog house of some sort.

That looks to have been an ancient camp site.
That seems to have been an ancient camp site.