Has done and had done

Question

Hi to everyone!

Can you explain me why we should use here Present Perfect instead of Past Perfect.

This is from The Thimes

And in lighter news, a tiny village in Yorkshire has become a haven for hedgehogs - and villagers declared the influx of creatures "the best thing that has ever happened" to their community.

Why not "the best thing that had ever happened"? It happened first, and then they declare. No?

Everything is so clear in video lessons and grammar books, but when it comes to "real sentences" from novels and newspapers I feel puzzled again and again(((((((((

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

????? ?????Everything is so clear in video lessons and grammar books, but when it comes to "real sentences" from novels and newspapers I feel puzzled again and again.

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”
— Helmuth von Moltke

Lessons give you only the simplest cases.

????? ?????Why not "the best thing that had ever happened"?

Because it's the best thing that has ever (ever = in their entire lives up to now) happened to their community. They are considering all things that have happened up to the moment they make this declaration. If they say "had ever happened", they are excluding anything that happened in the community after the influx of hedgehogs, which makes us think, "Well, what happened that was even better after the influx of hedgehogs?" and we expect they'll keep talking and tell us.

And in lighter news, a tiny village in Yorkshire has become a haven for hedgehogs - and villagers declared the influx of creatures the best thing that has ever happened to their community.

Consider:

At the time I was 20 years old, my trip to Spain was the best thing that had ever happened to me. But then, at age 32, I visited Paris!

Here we are to infer that Paris was an even better experience than Spain was.

CJ

Has done and had done

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions