Appear to have thought / appeared to think

Hope this helps.

Daniel: John, why are you telling this matter to Sara?
John: Now she knows I am innocent, but she appears to have thought that I was the reason for their break-up.

Mary: Why did you George about my new plan?
Samuel: He appeared to think you were going to give him nothing.

Thank you for your prompt reply. But, just to follow up on your example, what would be wrong with:

"John: Now she knows I am innovent, but she appeared to think that I was the reason for their break-up."?

Or

"Samuel: He appears to have thought that you were going to give him nothing."?

Thank you.

SuperESLHello,Is there any difference, however subtle, between:(1) He appears to have thought that......(2) He appeared to think that...... ?Thank you.

In my opinion the only difference is that the focus/emphasis shifts from one time period to another, but the meaning is the same.

I'll add a number of words, which may seem redundant in order to illust

So are we agreed that the two structures can be used interchangeably?

SuperESLSo are we agreed that the two structures can be used interchangeably?

There is always a structure that may be a better fit for a given situation, but in many cases, yes, these will have indentical meanings. I wouldn't say they are completely interchangeable since it will depend somewhat on the tense of the surrounding context.