0
Pructus Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Some tense issue

Hi,

The three sentences below....
It's difficult to get the exact difference among these.
I wish someone would enlightgen this tricky one.

1. John had said that Mary had wanted the book.
2. John had said that Mary wanted the book.
3. John had said that Mary wants the book.
  

Top answer

1. John had said that Mary had wanted the book. 2.

— CalifJim

  • 1.
  • John had said that Mary had wanted the book.
  • 2.
  • John had said that Mary wanted the book.
  • 3.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

5 Answers
0
1. John had said that Mary had wanted the book.
2. John had said that Mary wanted the book.
3. John had said that Mary wants the book.

Fortunately, it is very rare to see such sentences, so you will almost never have to work out the differences. They all require a very specialized context to make any sense.

1. John had said (before something else happened) that Mary had
0
0
I see......

Thanks a lot, CJ!!
0
0

CalifJim2. John had said (before something else happened), "Mary wants the book".3. John had said (before something else happened), "Mary wants the book".This differs from 2 in that the speaker believes that Mary still wants the book
But, the example of 2 and 3 are the same.

By the way if I say, ''John said that Mary wants the book.'''my senten
0
0
quaerereverumif I say, ''John said that Mary wants the book.'''my sentence should be correct regardless of the fact that one part of my sentence is a simple past and other other part is a present. Am I right?
Correct.

CJ
0

Related Questions