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Necrophagist Posted 6 years ago
Grammar

Present perfect or past perfect

1) Last week, we talked about everything that has/had happened over the last five years.

2) Five months ago, we talked about everything that had happened over the previous five years.

In example one, I would argue that both could be used depending on what you would like to emphasize. Because of "we talked about", we could use "had" which would abide by the rules of tense agreement and would suggest I was talking about what happened between five years ago and last week.

However, I also think we could use the present perfect because "last week" was so recent and "over the last five years" still applies right now.


In example two, I would only use the past perfect because "Five months ago", in my mind, was too long ago for the "over the last five years" to apply to the moment of speaking.


Am I right? Please help me. Thank you.

  

Top answer

Necrophagist Am I right? Your arguments are reasonable. Yes.

  • Necrophagist Am I right?
  • Your arguments are reasonable.
  • Yes.
  • CJ
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3 Answers
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NecrophagistAm I right?

Your arguments are reasonable. Yes.

CJ

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I believe "has/had" could be left entirely out of the sentence.

Last week, we talked about everything that happened over the last five years.

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Yes, you are right.

Clive

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