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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

as if + backshift

Hi there,

Do we need the backshift after as if / as though in the past tense ?

For example, I want to say He looks as if he saw a ghost in the Past Simple without changing the meaning so I have to say...

He looked as if he saw a ghost
or
He looked as if he had seen a ghost

???

Thank you in advance.
  

Top answer

It should be: He looked as if he had seen a ghost. The seeing of the ghost occurred before he looked the way he did (presumably), so you need "had seen".

— Mr Wordy

  • It should be: He looked as if he had seen a ghost.
  • The seeing of the ghost occurred before he looked the way he did (presumably), so you need "had seen".
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12 Answers
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It should be:

He looked as if he had seen a ghost.

The seeing of the ghost occurred before he looked the way he did (presumably), so you need "had seen".
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I think it was a wrong idea providing you that sentence in the Present Simple because you just did the backshift as it is normally done in the reported speech.
The problem is that I want to know what tense I should use when I start a sentence in the Past Simple (e.g It looked..., He looked... etc.) and I want to say something unreal (something unreal at that time, no ghosts earlier, no ghosts
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Even though he didn't really see any ghost, the tenses work in the same way here as if the hypothetical (unreal) sighting had actually happened.
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I'm not so sure it works the same way, look at this thread , there is nothing about the backshift, the subjunctive mood is used independently of the first part of the sentence.
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Both are really possible:
51 on "looked as if he saw a"
http://books.google.com/books?q=%22looked+as+if+he+saw+a%22&btnG=Search+Books
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And what about He looks as if he had seen a ghost ?
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To me, "He looked as if he saw a ghost" is a conversational (and not strictly correct) way of saying "He looked as if he had seen a ghost." It's the kind of thing I might say if I wasn't analysing my words too carefully. This is based on the assumption, which seems very likely to me, that he looked as he would have done had he seen a ghost moments earlier.

If I really wanted t
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>To me, "He looked as if he saw a ghost" is a conversational (and not strictly correct) way of saying "He looked as if he had seen a ghost." It's the kind of thing I might say if I wasn't analysing my words too carefully.
I'm convinced many expert users would agree with Mr. Wordy's opinion.
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AnonymousAnd what about He looks as if he had seen a ghost ?
No! It's either:
  • "He looks as if he has seen a ghost", or
  • "He looked as if he had seen a ghost".
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