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Question

Please,I want to understand why in this sentence we use these tenses:"I had been planning to go on a cruise as soon as  my son left home".(just to explain more,it talks about the KIIPPERS,a son who in his 20s,still lives with his mom.His mom said that;knowing that her son is still living with her,why she used the past perfect and the past tense.)If it were me,I would say "I was planning to do on a cruise as soon as my son leaves home".

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

The speaker wishes to set the statement of plan firmly in the past before some other (here, unindicated) past event.

Anonymous · Answer

I didn't get the point.What is confusing here is that the second verb is in the past but it didn't happen so far.That is,the mother's son is still living with her,so why do we use the past tense?.

Everlastinghope · Answer

I didn't get the point .What is confusing here is that the second verb is in the past,but the son; as in the example ;didn't leave home,so why do we use the past tense instead of the present?

CalifJim · Answer

The mother was making plans based on her son's leaving home in the past. In other words, he was to have left home by now, but he didn't.

The tense sequence suggests that she has more or less given up hope that he will ever leave home! As it reads, the impression is that she has probably stopped planning that cruise.

If the sentence read as soon as he leaves home, it would indicate that she's still counting on her son's leaving home at some time in the future. The use of "left" instead of "leaves" blocks that interpretation.

The same pattern can be used whenever some future event was anticipated in the past, but never took place as was then expected. That past tense indicates that the desired outcome runs counter to the facts.

Larry had selected a number of beautiful places to visit once he won the lottery. (The implication is that he didn't win. Things did not happen according to plan -- at least not during that time period in the past that the speaker is considering. He didn't visit any of those places. We have the impression from this tense sequence that Larry was disappointed by the fact that this lottery win never materialized -- within that past time period.)

Another factor to consider is that sentences usually just continue in the past if the first part of the sentence already establishes a past point of view and there is no significant reason to switch to the present.

CJ

Everlastinghope · Answer

Thanks a lot for this deep explanantion;I got the point and it's clear for me now.Thanks again.

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