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Tinanam0102 Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Past perfect in sequence of tenses

Hi teachers,

Can you help me with the past perfect used here, with no implied negations? The sequence of tenses and the time sequence really confuse me.


1. Soon after he became president, he had asked a faculty committee to study the feasibility of the project.

2. After he came back from the boot camp, he had changed.

3. When he got home that night, he had gone to the kitchen to get a drink.

Thank you

TN


  

Top answer

All three instances of the past perfect in your examples can be the simple past instead. It seems to me that the choice of tense in each case depends more on whatever text precedes the sentence shown, and not on anything in the first clause of the given sentence. ) CJ

— CalifJim

  • All three instances of the past perfect in your examples can be the simple past instead.
  • It seems to me that the choice of tense in each case depends more on whatever text precedes the sentence shown, and not on anything in the first clause of the given sentence.
  • ) CJ
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2 Answers
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All three instances of the past perfect in your examples can be the simple past instead. It seems to me that the choice of tense in each case depends more on whatever text precedes the sentence shown, and not on anything in the first clause of the given sentence.

(I don't know what you mean by "no implied negations" or what it has to do with the past perfect.)

CJ

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Here's an example of what I was talking about in my previous post:

Mr Wilson was made president of the university last May. Soon after he became president, he asked a faculty committee to study the feasibility of the project.
(The time line of the story continues without any backtracking. Everything happened in the same order as it is written.)

The pro

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