0
Laborious Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Could you please check the following article?
Hi teachers,
I have taken the following article from an Indian newspaper. And I'm not satisfied with the grammar of a few sentences given in the article.
Here is the article.
A two-and-a-half year old child was being repeatedly sexually abused at a playschool in Rohini. On thursday, the alleged preprator - an employee of the playschol - was arrested.
The incident came to light when the girl shared her trauma with her parents when they prodded her to reveal why she didn't want to go to school. The family approached police on Thursday after which a case was registered under sections of rape (IPC) and POCSO. The employee was identified as xyz, a security guard-cum-help who looked after the children in the absence of women staff.
Police suspect the child was being abused for sometime. "The man used to take the children to the toilets in the absence of women staff. That's where he abused the child. She was refusing to go to school for the past few days and had complanied of pain in her private parts," an officer said.
My questions are about the parts/sentences which are in bold, please:
1) Why is 'past continuous' tense used in "Police suspect the child was being..."? We always use the past perfect continuous - or sometimes, the past pefect simple - to say how long something has been going on or existed (before something else) in the past, don't we?
2). Again in "She was refusing....", the writer used the past continuous tense. Shouldn't it be "She had been refusing..."?
Thank you.
I have taken the following article from an Indian newspaper. And I'm not satisfied with the grammar of a few sentences given in the article.
Here is the article.
A two-and-a-half year old child was being repeatedly sexually abused at a playschool in Rohini. On thursday, the alleged preprator - an employee of the playschol - was arrested.
The incident came to light when the girl shared her trauma with her parents when they prodded her to reveal why she didn't want to go to school. The family approached police on Thursday after which a case was registered under sections of rape (IPC) and POCSO. The employee was identified as xyz, a security guard-cum-help who looked after the children in the absence of women staff.
Police suspect the child was being abused for sometime. "The man used to take the children to the toilets in the absence of women staff. That's where he abused the child. She was refusing to go to school for the past few days and had complanied of pain in her private parts," an officer said.
My questions are about the parts/sentences which are in bold, please:
1) Why is 'past continuous' tense used in "Police suspect the child was being..."? We always use the past perfect continuous - or sometimes, the past pefect simple - to say how long something has been going on or existed (before something else) in the past, don't we?
2). Again in "She was refusing....", the writer used the past continuous tense. Shouldn't it be "She had been refusing..."?
Thank you.
Top answer
The past perfect would be fine in both of your sentences. The simple answer to your question is that native speakers are frequently less convrened about backshifting from past to past perfect than some student grammars suggest they should be. " in the second sentence.
- The past perfect would be fine in both of your sentences.
- The simple answer to your question is that native speakers are frequently less convrened about backshifting from past to past perfect than some student grammars suggest they should be.
- " in the second sentence.
- In the first, the careful writer would probably have written "...
- ".
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
1 Answers
0
The past perfect would be fine in both of your sentences. The simple answer to your question is that native speakers are frequently less convrened about backshifting from past to past perfect than some student grammars suggest they should be.
A careful writer would almost certainly have written "She had been refusing to go ..." in the second sentence. In the first, the careful writer woul
A careful writer would almost certainly have written "She had been refusing to go ..." in the second sentence. In the first, the careful writer woul
0
Related Questions