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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Past perfect - how often do native speakers REALLY use it?
How often do you, native speakers, really use the past perfect tense in spoken communication? (Not counting the 3rd conditional, of course)
I ask myself this question whenever I see textbook sentences like:
1. When he arrived, Eve wasn't there. She had left about five minutes before.
2. I went to see the movie. We had discussed it in class.
If I say When he arrived, Eve wasn't there. She left, I think the meaning is perfectly clear. Because she wasn't there when he arrived, she must have left before his arrival.
Whereas in When he arrived, Eve left. He arrived and THEN she left.
And what about - When he arrived, Eve had already left. ? Can you actually read / hear that outside an English lesson?
Thank you.
I ask myself this question whenever I see textbook sentences like:
1. When he arrived, Eve wasn't there. She had left about five minutes before.
2. I went to see the movie. We had discussed it in class.
If I say When he arrived, Eve wasn't there. She left, I think the meaning is perfectly clear. Because she wasn't there when he arrived, she must have left before his arrival.
Whereas in When he arrived, Eve left. He arrived and THEN she left.
And what about - When he arrived, Eve had already left. ? Can you actually read / hear that outside an English lesson?
Thank you.
Top answer
Hi, That's a hard question to ask a native speaker. Here are a few brief and subjective comments. Some people would tell you that the use of Past Perfect is fading.
- Hi, That's a hard question to ask a native speaker.
- Here are a few brief and subjective comments.
- Some people would tell you that the use of Past Perfect is fading.
- Its use reflects the speaker's education and facility with language.
- Some people speak poor English, just as I'm sure that some people speak poor Mandarin or Hindi.
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3 Answers
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Hi,
That's a hard question to ask a native speaker. Here are a few brief and subjective comments.
Some people would tell you that the use of Past Perfect is fading.
Its use reflects the speaker's education and facility with language. Some people speak poor English, just as I'm sure that some people speak poor Mandarin or Hindi.
In speech, the contraction is oft
That's a hard question to ask a native speaker. Here are a few brief and subjective comments.
Some people would tell you that the use of Past Perfect is fading.
Its use reflects the speaker's education and facility with language. Some people speak poor English, just as I'm sure that some people speak poor Mandarin or Hindi.
In speech, the contraction is oft
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Well, I can't speak for everyone, fo course, but yes, I use the past perfect all the time in situations like you describe.
But we tend to use contractions - so "she'd left" could, I suppose, be misheard as "she left."
(Edited: Oops. I forgot to hit post so Clive gave you a much better answer first.)
But we tend to use contractions - so "she'd left" could, I suppose, be misheard as "she left."
(Edited: Oops. I forgot to hit post so Clive gave you a much better answer first.)
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As a native-speaker I wouldn't think of dropping the past perfect any more than I would think of dropping any of the other tenses! Certainly in the examples you mentioned I'd use the past perfect (when speaking - most often in the contracted form).
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