A puzzling sentence
" How old was Spring-Rice when he went to Egypt?" (Begin with: Tom asked me..)
The model answer is :
Tom asked me how old was Spring-Rice when he had gone to Egypt.
I want to know why 'was' remained unchanged whereas 'went' was changed into 'had gone'. When do we change the past simple tense into past perfect?
Top answer
[1] How old was Spring-Rice when he went to Egypt? [2] Tom asked me how old was Spring-Rice when he had gone to Egypt. [3] Tom asked me how old Spring-Rice was when he went to Egypt I’m assuming that “he” refers to “Spring Rice”.
- [1] How old was Spring-Rice when he went to Egypt?
- [2] Tom asked me how old was Spring-Rice when he had gone to Egypt.
- [3] Tom asked me how old Spring-Rice was when he went to Egypt I’m assuming that “he” refers to “Spring Rice”.
- I would say that the model answer [2] is wrong for two reasons: First, the underlined subordinate interrogative clause (embedded question) should not have subject-auxiliary inversion, but should be as in [3].
- Second, the past perfect seems inappropriate here.
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[1] How old was Spring-Rice when he went to Egypt?
[2] Tom asked me how old was Spring-Rice when he had gone to Egypt.
[3] Tom asked me how old Spring-Rice was when he went to Egypt
I’m assuming that “he” refers to “Spring Rice”.
I would say that the model answer [2] is wrong for two reasons:
First, the underlined s
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