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Imzy Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
past tense vs would have past
Hello everyone. Thank you very much for checking out this post.
I'm still confused as to when to use these two different sentence structures in their right contexts:
1. "He did not produce as many papers as the university wanted him to"
2. "He had not produced as many papers as the university would have liked him to"
Suppose the context is like this: He got sacked by the university because he did not produce/had not produced* as many papers as the university *wanted/would have liked him to.
Did I just answer my own question?
Thank you very much for your support.
I'm still confused as to when to use these two different sentence structures in their right contexts:
1. "He did not produce as many papers as the university wanted him to"
2. "He had not produced as many papers as the university would have liked him to"
Suppose the context is like this: He got sacked by the university because he did not produce/had not produced* as many papers as the university *wanted/would have liked him to.
Did I just answer my own question?
Thank you very much for your support.
Top answer
" is is a plain statement of a past event/situation. " implies that his not producing enough papers happened before some other past event that is relevant in the context. " The past perfect helps to emphasise the sequence of events in that sentence but it is not mandatory.
- " is is a plain statement of a past event/situation.
- " implies that his not producing enough papers happened before some other past event that is relevant in the context.
- " The past perfect helps to emphasise the sequence of events in that sentence but it is not mandatory.
- " You can use either ending with either beginning, with no significant difference in meaning.
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2 Answers
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"He did not produce..." is is a plain statement of a past event/situation.
"He had not produced..." implies that his not producing enough papers happened before some other past event that is relevant in the context. For example, "He got sacked by the university because he had not produced as many papers as the university wanted / would have liked him to." The past perfect helps to emphasi
"He had not produced..." implies that his not producing enough papers happened before some other past event that is relevant in the context. For example, "He got sacked by the university because he had not produced as many papers as the university wanted / would have liked him to." The past perfect helps to emphasi
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imzy1. "He did not produce as many papers as the university wanted him to"2. "He had not produced as many papers as the university would have liked him to"You are dealing with the idiom would like. The grammar of an idiom is not always the same as the grammar of the same words when they are not used in an idiom, so the answer below is not necessarily
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