Justification of the tense in one sentence

Question

"When Sarah went/had gone to the bank to ask for a loan, the manager asked/had asked her to write a business plan. She started/had started the business in March and by the end of the year she made/had made a big profit. Sarah found/had found it difficult at first because she never ran/had never run a business before. After she worked/had worked for a year, things got/had got easier."Could you please choose the right answer in all the sentences and then, why I am asking for help is that I have no justification of what tense I should use in the red-highlighted sentence. Why should I use in that sentence past perfect or past simple? Thanks a lot.Thanks in advance.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

In English today, the past perfect is often replaced by the past, except in situations where it is absolutely necessary. The past perfect might be more grammatically correct, in a strict technical sense, but it starts to sound ponderous when used to excess. The excerpt would be said as:

"When Sarah went to the bank to ask for a loan, the mgr. asked her to write a business plan. She started the business in Mar. and by the end of the yr. she had made a big profit. Sarah found it difficult at first because she had never fun a business before. After she had worked for a yr., things got easier."

Technically speaking, you could use the past perfect in each of the 8 slashed sentences, but if you did that, the text would sound tedious. Only in the 4th, 6th, and 7th slashed sentences is the past perfect necessary.

Marold · Answer

Thank you very much.<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Justification of the tense in one sentence

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions