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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Grammer

Pls tell me why the past perfect continuous has been used in the sentence below:-
"perturb astronomers say that fear of the universe had been growing in the past decade "
  

Top answer

Hi, Pls tell me why the past perfect continuous has been used in the sentence below:- "perturb astronomers say that fear of the universe had been growing in the past decade " The Past Perfect is wrong here, unless there is something in some earlier part of the context that provides a reason for using it. Just looking at this sentence by itself, it should be P erturb ed astronomers say that fear of the universe has been growing in the past decade . The continuous tense is used to suggest that the growth has been continuous, ie that it has not doe a lot of stopping and starting.

— Clive

  • Hi, Pls tell me why the past perfect continuous has been used in the sentence below:- "perturb astronomers say that fear of the universe had been growing in the past decade " The Past Perfect is wrong here, unless there is something in some earlier part of the context that provides a reason for using it.
  • Just looking at this sentence by itself, it should be P erturb ed astronomers say that fear of the universe has been growing in the past decade .
  • The continuous tense is used to suggest that the growth has been continuous, ie that it has not doe a lot of stopping and starting.
  • What does 'fear of the universe' mean?
  • Clive
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1 Answers
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Hi,

Pls tell me why the past perfect continuous has been used in the sentence below:-
"perturb astronomers say that fear of the universe had been growing in the past decade "

The Past Perfect is wrong here, unless there is something in some earlier part of the context that provides a reason for using it.
Jus
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