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PreciousJones Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Had been

The LA Sparks had been looking into obtaining an injury exception to sign a 16th player, but the team is unlikely to add anyone to the roster at this point, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.

Shouldn't it be have been instead of had been?

It's not describing a situation prior to a past occurence.

Please examine. Thanks.
  

Top answer

Yes.

— Clive

  • Yes.
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10 Answers
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PreciousJones The LA Sparks had been looking into obtaining an injury exception to sign a 16th player, but the team is unlikely to add anyone to the roster at this point, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.Shouldn't it be have been instead of had been?It's not describing a situation prior to a past occurence. Please examine. Thanks.
It's desc
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PreciousJonesIt's not describing a situation prior to a past occurence.
It could be. It's possible that they had been looking into this possibility, but then decided against it. Now "the team is unlikely to add anyone to the roster
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CliveYes.
I've gotten mixed answers here. Can someone please clarify what the correct verb tense should be?
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Here is the timeline, in my opinion:
  • Sparks were looking for a player,
  • they stopped looking,
  • they told Darren Wolfson,
  • he reported this.
So, had been is correct.
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PreciousJones CliveYes.I've gotten mixed answers here. Can someone please clarify what the correct verb tense should be?
There is more than one possibility. Only full context can tell us if any are not appropriate.
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fivejedjonQuote
That is the full context.
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PreciousJones fivejedjonQuoteThat is the full context.
Then it is not possible to say for certain what the most natural tense would be.
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There is no explicit 'later past occurrence' stated. Past Perfect is justified if you want to hypothesize one.

Clive
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The LA Sparks had been looking into obtaining an injury exception to sign a 16th player, but the team is unlikely to add anyone to the roster at this point, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. That includes Dominique Jones, whose camp has been reaching out to teams.

This is the full paragraph.
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