Completing A Sentence

My father beat my brother to teach him never to show disrespect to our mother again.

TerryxpressMy father beat my brother to teach him never to show disrespect to our mother again.

Or: My father beat my brother to discipline him never to show disrespect......again.

Hi, very helpful thank you.

and what if I wanted to make the sentence using past perfect:

Before I went to school, my father had beaten my brother to .................................. .

Thanks..

Past Perfect is used to indicate that one action in the past occurred before another past action.

HOWEVER, sometimes this is obvious in other ways, and is not needed.

You start your sentence, "Before...", so of course what comes next occurred prior to your going to school: Past Perfect is not needed, and sounds odd. ( Just like Americans using Past Perfect as if Pa

Thank you both.

I'm happy that I got the point about using past perfect. However that question has stucked in my mind.

johner what if I wanted to make the same sentence using past perfect:

Say we want to stress that the event had already happened when I left for school. In this case how would it continue?

When I left for school, my father had

Yes. Excellent example, with the use of 'already'

Hi again,

Terryxpress
Yes. Excellent example, with the use of 'already'

Thanks but I couldn't complete the sentence below according to the event that I mentioned in my first post. How should I finish the sentence?

When I left for school, my father had already beaten my brother to ..................................

Many thanks...

When I left for school, my father had already beaten my brother, so it was too late to ask a neighbour to come and calm my father down.

Hi,

Let me add a small cultural note about vocabulary.

Where I live, beating a child sounds like a bad thing to do. We generally use softer, gentler words than 'beat', eg smack, spank.

If you tell me that your neighhbour beats his child, it sounds to me like you should consider calling the police.

Clive

Thank you very much.