Past Perfect and "by"
Hello!
I just stumbled on a sentence where usage of past perfect puzzled me a little.
- I had done my work by 7 o'clock.
No other context is given. Is it a correct way of using past perfect? 'Cause I thought that the only excuse for past perfect is when we want to show chronology of some events, happened in the past. It seems to me that the following sentence sounds more reasonable:
- I had done my work by 7 o'clock when she came in.
Top answer
?????? Is it a correct way of using past perfect? Yes, it is.
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- Is it a correct way of using past perfect?
- Yes, it is.
- The past perfect is used when you have two events in the past, and you need to indicate their respective chronology.
- In your example, there are two events in the past (you say that no additional context is given, but that's an odd sentence without any context at all; the use of the past perfect in your sentence automatically suggests that "7 o'clock" happened in the past): Past Event 1: 7 o'clock Past Event 2: some point in the past that happened before 7 o'clock (the event of your doing your homework) The use of the past perfect in your example informs the audience that you did your homework before the clock struck seven o'clock.
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??????? ?????? Is it a correct way of using past perfect?
Yes, it is. The past perfect is used when you have two events in the past, and you need to indicate their respective chronology. In your example, there are two events in the past (you say that no additional context is given, but that's an odd sentence without any context at all; the use of the past p
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