Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous
Hi! Can anyone please explain to me the use of tenses inthis sentence?
Several years later I (find out) that during all the time I (write) to my pen friend, my mother (open) and reading the replies!
In the first case I understand why it should be 'found out', but why in the other blanks I have to say 'had written' and 'had been opening'. I thought the second verb implies the process (during all the time), therefore I should use Past Continuous
Top answer
Some sort of past perfect tense is indicated for the second two blanks, since the writing and opening happened before the time of "found out", which is itself already in the past. It would be fine to use the continuous tense in both places: Several years later I found out that during all the time I had been writing to my pen friend, my mother had been opening and reading the replies! However, in practice people are not always rigidly strict about using the continuous tense rather than the plain tense in these kinds of contexts.
- Some sort of past perfect tense is indicated for the second two blanks, since the writing and opening happened before the time of "found out", which is itself already in the past.
- It would be fine to use the continuous tense in both places: Several years later I found out that during all the time I had been writing to my pen friend, my mother had been opening and reading the replies!
- However, in practice people are not always rigidly strict about using the continuous tense rather than the plain tense in these kinds of contexts.
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Some sort of past perfect tense is indicated for the second two blanks, since the writing and opening happened before the time of "found out", which is itself already in the past. It would be fine to use the continuous tense in both places:
Several years later I found out that during all the time I had been writing to my pen friend, my mother had been opening and
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