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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Past perfect vs simple past
Hi.
"If he did not present the answer in the proper historical background, Sophie would be left with a vacant air of bewilderment - the exact expression Langdon had seen on his own editor's face a few months ago after Langdon handed him a draft of the manuscript he was working on." [From The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.]
In my opinion there is a sort of tense misplacement in the sentence. The seeing the expression on the editor's face occurred after handing in a draft of the manuscript and working on it. Yet, the last action, i.e. "seeing" is expressed in the Past Perfect whereas the actions preceding it are in the Simple Past and Past Continous. Why?
---Working on the manuscript----------------|handing it in|seeing the expression on the editor's face|, but
|--Past Continuous-------------------------------|Past Simple|--------------- Past Perfect------------------------------|, but not
|--Past Perfect Continuous--------------------|Past Perfect|-------------Simple Past-----------------------------|.
Thank you.
"If he did not present the answer in the proper historical background, Sophie would be left with a vacant air of bewilderment - the exact expression Langdon had seen on his own editor's face a few months ago after Langdon handed him a draft of the manuscript he was working on." [From The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.]
In my opinion there is a sort of tense misplacement in the sentence. The seeing the expression on the editor's face occurred after handing in a draft of the manuscript and working on it. Yet, the last action, i.e. "seeing" is expressed in the Past Perfect whereas the actions preceding it are in the Simple Past and Past Continous. Why?
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|--
|--
Thank you.
Top answer
When the sequence of actions is clear, native speakers use the past perfect fat less often than course books and basic grammars suggest they do. The use of the word 'after' makes the sequence clear.
- When the sequence of actions is clear, native speakers use the past perfect fat less often than course books and basic grammars suggest they do.
- The use of the word 'after' makes the sequence clear.
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2 Answers
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When the sequence of actions is clear, native speakers use the past perfect fat less often than course books and basic grammars suggest they do. The use of the word 'after' makes the sequence clear.
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Thank you, Fivejedjon, for your useful reply.
PS: There is a discrepancy between the script used in the Write a New Post and what one gets in the post itself after moderator's acceptance. My diagram at the end of the post is quite different to that I've put in the Write-a-New-Post script.
PS: There is a discrepancy between the script used in the Write a New Post and what one gets in the post itself after moderator's acceptance. My diagram at the end of the post is quite different to that I've put in the Write-a-New-Post script.
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