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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Past perfect

Hi,

"He predicted exactly that when he spoke to me well over a decade ago and I had scoffed at him." [From The Independent.]

He predicted... and [after that]... I had scoffed at him.

Why does the past perfect action of 'having scoffed at him' follow the simple past one of 'his predicting' here?

It seems to me that the reverse would be more appropriate: 'He had predicted... and [after that] I scoffed at him.'

Thank you.
  

Top answer

Anonymous Why does the past perfect action of 'having scoffed at him' follow the simple past one of 'his predicting' here? It's one of those oddities of English, I suppose. I take it that from the point of view of the narrative you're reading, the prediction has already come true.

— CalifJim

  • Anonymous Why does the past perfect action of 'having scoffed at him' follow the simple past one of 'his predicting' here?
  • It's one of those oddities of English, I suppose.
  • I take it that from the point of view of the narrative you're reading, the prediction has already come true.
  • In that case, the prediction, the speaking, and the scoffing all happened before the predicted event occurred, and there's a case for putting all of those verbs in the past perfect.
  • As it turns out, that's rather cumbersome: He had predicted exactly that when he had spoken to me well over a decade ago and I had scoffed at him.
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3 Answers
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AnonymousWhy does the past perfect action of 'having scoffed at him' follow the simple past one of 'his predicting' here?
It's one of those oddities of English, I suppose. I take it that from the point of view of the narrative you're reading, the prediction has already come true. In that case, the prediction, the speaking, and the scoffing all happened befor
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Thank you, CJ, for your useful reply.
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I agree with CalifJim - this is an odd one.

How about:

Over a decade ago, he exactly (correctly, precisely) predicted that when he spoke to me I would scoff at him.

Cheers,

John

EDIT: On second thought, I think that CalifJim got it right:

When he spoke to me well over a decade ago, he predicted exactly that (i.e., exactly that fact), and I scof
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