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I read these sentences in novel "pride and prejudice" and I am a little confused .
1. It is not quite a week since they left Brighton.
2.It was a fortnight since Mrs Bennet had been downstairs.
Are the grammatically correct ? or the below sentences are more correct?
1. It has not been quite a week since they left Brighton.
2.It had been a fortnight since Mrs Bennet had been downstairs.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

In English grammar textbooks they give you examples of present tense, past tense, future tense, present perf. tense, past perf. tense, future perf. tense, etc. These are correct as given, but in real life speech, real literature, real journalism, etc. things are not so cut and dried as this.

For example, you can express future time using the present tense only:

I'm going to the party on Friday night. (This is said in present time, using a present tense form, however, the idea expressed is in future time.)

You can express the present perf. using the present tense, for example:

They've settled into the house in London, and like it fine. It is not quite a week since they left Brighton. (The first sentence has the pres. perf. and present tenses, and the second sentence has the present tense and past tense. Strictly speaking grammatically, the first part of the second sentence should be pres. perf., but the pres. tense conveys this idea of pres. perf. tense implicitly.)

In the sentence, "It was a fortnight since Mrs. Bennett had been downstairs.", you have past tense and past perf. tense. Strictly speaking grammatically, the first part should also be past perf., but the past here conveys the idea of past perf. tense implicitly.

The reason for these grammatical "errors" in real writing is that writing everything in strict grammatical form would give a tedious text. And so to spice up things, so to speak, little "errors" are thrown in.

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