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Voytaszek Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

A question about the past simple and the time reference

Can we use the past simple without using time reference, even if we didn`t mention a time context and didn`t use the present perfect to describe an event before?
  

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4 Answers
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What sentence are you considering?
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VoytaszekCan we use the past simple without using time reference
Yes, you can, and the tenses in other sentences don't make any difference.

Time reference? ....... no ............ yes
Tense:
Simple past .............. OK ............ OK
Present perfect ........ OK ........ NOT OK

Time references include adverbs of time (yesterd
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What if I want to talk about a longer event (attending to school for 9 month in the past)? Should I use time reference or could I simply say; `I attended to school for 9 months` ? Or maybe the past perfect is more proper or both?
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What if I want to talk about a longer event (attending to school for 9 months in the past)? Should I use a time reference or could I simply say; `I attended to school for 9 months` ? Or maybe the past perfect is more proper or both?

Use the simple past. Use the past perfect if there were certain events that happened even earlier. The duration of the eve
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