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PreciousJones Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

Sentence out of a book

So this sentence is from a book I'm reading:

I fantasized that my father had forgotten why he had wanted to hit us in the first place.

Is this past perfect tense? I always thought past perfect tense can only be used to state something that happened before another past event.

What's the difference between the sentence above and:

I fantasized that my father forgot why wanted to hit us in the first place.
  

Top answer

PreciousJones I always thought past perfect tense can only be used to state something that happened before another past event. Correct. The forgetting (or imagined forgetting) happened before the fantasizing.

— Mr Wordy

  • PreciousJones I always thought past perfect tense can only be used to state something that happened before another past event.
  • Correct.
  • The forgetting (or imagined forgetting) happened before the fantasizing.
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13 Answers
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PreciousJonesI always thought past perfect tense can only be used to state something that happened before another past event.
Correct. The forgetting (or imagined forgetting) happened before the fantasizing.
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Hello,

I fantasized that my father had forgotten why he had wanted to hit us in the first place.

So would this be considered direct or indirect speech? I assume indirect speech.

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What about this sentence:

Ivory and had met freshman year and had been close ever since.

In sentence above the past perfect is used but it's not to desribe a situation before another past event. It's telling us that they've been close after they met freshman year.

Correct?

Please explain. Thank you!
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PreciousJonesSo would this be considered direct or indirect speech? I assume indirect speech.
It isn't either. For an explanation see e.g. http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/reportedspeech.htm
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PreciousJones
Ivory and had met freshman year and had been close ever since.

In sentence above the past perfect is used but it's not to desribe a situation before another past event. It's telling us that they've been close after they met freshman year.

Correct?

The sentence is not right, so I'll assume it says: "They
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Hello Mr Wordy,

Sorry but the sentence is:

Ivory and I had met freshman year and had been close ever since.

doesn't the sentence above also use past perfect tense? Oh wait...but Had met is also past perfect isn't it?? Ahhhh now I know what's going on..
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Mr Wordy
PreciousJonesSo would this be considered direct or indirect speech? I assume indirect speech.
It isn't either. For an explanation see e.g. http://www.learnenglish.de/gra
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PreciousJones
Sorry but the sentence is:

Ivory and I had met freshman year and had been close ever since.

doesn't the sentence above also use past perfect tense? Oh wait...but Had met is also past perfect isn't it?? Ahhhh now I know what's going on..

The different ways that we've fixed the broken sentence make no
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PreciousJonesSo if it's not direct or indirect speech, would this be a narrative...or is there a technical term for it?
I'm not clear which characteristic of this sentence you are trying to find a term for.
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If it's not direct or indirect...what kind of a sentence is it?
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