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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Senetences with only simpe present tense or past tense
Hi,
Is it ok to construct sentences only in simple past? For eg:"I called my friend and told him that i would be coming down.He told me it was ok and asked me to wait for sometime.I called him before going and then i went there.When I reached there he was not there as he went outside and i came back""
Do I have to use"He had gone outside" instead of "He went"
Is it ok to construct sentences only in simple past? For eg:"I called my friend and told him that i would be coming down.He told me it was ok and asked me to wait for sometime.I called him before going and then i went there.When I reached there he was not there as he went outside and i came back""
Do I have to use"He had gone outside" instead of "He went"
Top answer
Up until the last sentence you are telling the story in chronological order, so the simple past is fine. In the last sentence, I assume you mean he went outside before you arrived. " Stylistically this is not a great sentence because of the repetition of "there".
- Up until the last sentence you are telling the story in chronological order, so the simple past is fine.
- In the last sentence, I assume you mean he went outside before you arrived.
- " Stylistically this is not a great sentence because of the repetition of "there".
- " The words "and I came back" also do not fit properly with the rest of the sentence.
- There are various other small mistakes in what you wrote.
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1 Answers
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Up until the last sentence you are telling the story in chronological order, so the simple past is fine. In the last sentence, I assume you mean he went outside before you arrived. In that case, yes, you need the past perfect to "step back in time":
"When I reached there, he was not there as he had gone outside..."
Stylistically this is not a great sentence because
"When I reached there, he was not there as he had gone outside..."
Stylistically this is not a great sentence because
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