Sequence of Tenses

Question

HiAs soon as Merry (to arrive) had arrived in the village, she (to see) saw that the houses (to be) are white-washed. She realized that her new life (to be) will be very different from the one she (to live) lived so far. In the village, men (to work) work in the fields whereas women (to stay) stay at home. They (not to be) are not rich materially, but they ( to be) are very happy because they ( to love) love each other.Could you please correct them ?Thanks in advance.

JohnParis · Accepted Answer

As soon as Merry arrived in the village, she saw that the houses were white-washed. She realized that her new life would be very different from the one she had lived so far. In the village, men worked in the fields whereas women stayed at home. They were not rich materially, but they were very happy because they loved each other.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks a lot for your help.

But
I think in the first sentence we should use perfect form becuse the first action happend and then the sencond action happend so i think it is correct.( As soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses are white-washed.)
(In the village, men worked in the fields whereas womenstayed at home.) here "men work in the fields" is a general fact as well as the following verbs.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

As soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses were white-washed

The houses had been white-washed long before Merry's arrival. There is no connection between the two events.
If the actions were simultaneous, then we would write:

As soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses were being white-washed

Or, referring to a future event:

As soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses needed to be white-washed, and learned that they would be white-washed the next day.

Or referring to an action just completed:
As soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses had just been white-washed. Their walls were still gleaming wet.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks it is very helpful. i thought "white-washed" an adjective, but the sentence is in the passive form.
What about the other sentences?

AlpheccaStars · Answer

lost manQuoteThanks it is very helpful. i thought "white-washed" an adjective, but the sentence is in the passive form.

The past participle can also be an adjective, but that does not change the tense in your first sentence.

When Merry arrived, she saw that the houses were white-washed.

The white-washed houses gleamed in the afternoon sunshine.

JohnParis has correctly given you the other tenses.

Henry74 · Answer

AlpheccaStarsAs soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses were being white-washed

Hi,

I'm sorry to barge in uninvited; but, can I ask you something?
I'm a little puzzled by that sentence.
...had arrived seems to refer to something in simple-past position, before which we are setting the scene. This seems to conflict with saw though, at least they way I would think of that in my native language.
I'm surely mistaken, but I probably would have said: She told me that as soon as she had arrived she had seen that the houses were being white-washed.
Could you please explain to me the simple past of see?

Thank you!
H.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks but i didn't understand why the last sentences in the past tense. iIt seems to me that they should be in the present tense because they are general fact and they are related to tradition and culture of the writer's country that men work outside the house whereas women work inside. does it make a difference?
In the village, men worked in the fields whereas women stayed at home. They were not rich materially, but they were very happy because they loved each other.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Henry74 AlpheccaStarsAs soon as Merry had arrived in the village, she saw that the houses were being white-washedHi,I'm sorry to barge in uninvited; but, can I ask you something?I'm a little puzzled by that sentence. ...had arrived seems to refer to something in simple-past position, before which we are setting the scene. This seems to conflict with saw though, at least they way I would think of that in my native language.I'm surely mistaken, but I probably would have said: She told me that as soon as she had arrived she had seen that the houses were being white-washed.Could you please explain to me the simple past of see? Thank you!H.

The past perfect is used in a clause to show an action completed prior to the action in another clause.

As soon as she had arrived (action completed first), she saw (subsequent completed action)....

The two actions can be reversed, eg:

She had seen many pictures of the white-washed village houses before she arrived.

Your example is different, in that it adds the element of reported speech, which back-shifts the tense in the following clause.

She told me that she had seen that the houses were being white-washed.

It is not possible to back-shift the past perfect tense (the first action) because there is no available grammatical tense to do so.

She told me that (as soon as she had arrived) she had seen that the houses were being white-washed.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

It is important to understand the writer's (speaker's) point of view, as compared to the reader's. If the narrative setting (writer's time frame) is in the past, then the tenses are appropriate to that time frame, in this case, it is in the past.

Herodotus, an early historian, wrote what he observed on his travels.

In the village, men worked in the fields whereas women stayed at home. They were not rich materially, but they were very happy because they loved each other.

The past tense in a narrative does not refer to actions that are necessarily completed; they were true at that time in the past, and may still be true.

This is the present day point of view, where the writer's time frame and the reader's time frame coincide:

Today we can go to this same village. The men work in the fields and the women stay at home. (etc.)

Anonymous · Answer

AlpheccaStarsThe past tense in a narrative does not refer to actions that are necessarily completed; they were true at that time in the past, and may still be true.

This a new information and thanks to it i understand.
Thanks a lot.

Sequence of Tenses

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