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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Present tense use

Hi.Let us pretend that we are writing a commentary on a section of a book. Is the underlined present perfect tense usage is set in the past? Also, is the word "that" between the words "section" and "he" optional here? Thank you for your anticipated help.

We can tell from this section he may have wanted to reveal what he has done.
  

Top answer

Hi Anon I would use "had done" rather than "has done". The past perfect works better in combination with "may have wanted". The word "that" is optional, but I think I would use it.

— Yankee

  • Hi Anon I would use "had done" rather than "has done".
  • The past perfect works better in combination with "may have wanted".
  • The word "that" is optional, but I think I would use it.
  • I would suggest one of these two: - We can tell from this section (that) he may have wanted to reveal what he had done .
  • - We can tell from this section (that) he may want to reveal what he has done .
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1 Answers
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Hi Anon

I would use "had done" rather than "has done". The past perfect works better in combination with "may have wanted". The word "that" is optional, but I think I would use it.

I would suggest one of these two:

- We can tell from this section (that) he may have wanted to reveal what he had done.
- We can tell from this section (that) he may want
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