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Victor_amelkin Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Present perfect vs. past perfect
Hello,
Could you please suggest which of the tenses suits the following
sentence best, present or past perfect?
"Sometimes young students at their young age come up with ideas
that their teachers has/had never thought of."
On the one hand, I do not talk about the present moment, so there
is no need to say that something hasn't been done until now. On the
other hand, using past perfect here would imply that I'm talking about
cases in the past; however, they are occuring nowadays and will occur
in future. Could you please help me to resolve this dilemma?
Thanks in advance.
--
Victor
Could you please suggest which of the tenses suits the following
sentence best, present or past perfect?
"Sometimes young students at their young age come up with ideas
that their teachers has/had never thought of."
On the one hand, I do not talk about the present moment, so there
is no need to say that something hasn't been done until now. On the
other hand, using past perfect here would imply that I'm talking about
cases in the past; however, they are occuring nowadays and will occur
in future. Could you please help me to resolve this dilemma?
Thanks in advance.
--
Victor
Top answer
Hi, Say it this way. " Clive edited Sorry, I crossed through some words, but that feature does not seem to be working for me. Here is what I suggested, with the crossed through parts simply deleted.
- Hi, Say it this way.
- " Clive edited Sorry, I crossed through some words, but that feature does not seem to be working for me.
- Here is what I suggested, with the crossed through parts simply deleted.
- "
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4 Answers
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Hi,
Say it this way.
"Sometimes young students at their young age come up with ideas
that their teachers have has/had never thought of."
Clive
edited Sorry, I crossed through some words, but that feature does not seem to be working for me. Here is what I suggest
Say it this way.
"Sometimes young students at their young age come up with ideas
that their teachers have has/had never thought of."
Clive
edited Sorry, I crossed through some words, but that feature does not seem to be working for me. Here is what I suggest
00
Because of the plural "teachers", the choice is between "have" and "had". You don't really need the repetition of "young". You can say:
"Sometimes young students come up with ideas that their teachers have never thought of." -- students do this now, or they do this generally (without reference to a specific time).
"Sometimes young students came up wit
"Sometimes young students come up with ideas that their teachers have never thought of." -- students do this now, or they do this generally (without reference to a specific time).
"Sometimes young students came up wit
00
Hello Clive, Mr Wordy,
Thanks for your answers.
Clive> ...their teachers have has/had never thought of.
Oops, my typo. Surely, it should had been "have", not "has".
Mr Wordy> came up... had never thought of – students did this
Mr Wordy> in the past; will usually refer to some particular situatio
Thanks for your answers.
Clive> ...their teachers have has/had never thought of.
Oops, my typo. Surely, it should had been "have", not "has".
Mr Wordy> came up... had never thought of – students did this
Mr Wordy> in the past; will usually refer to some particular situatio
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victor_amelkinIn my case, there is no any particular situation that took place inYes, if you are talking about the general behaviour of students then present perfect is the way to go.
the past, so my choice is apparently present perfect.
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