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English 1b3 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Tense and aspects--the finer points.
I refused to go, until I saw all the pictures.
1) When choosing the tense and aspect of the main clause, I do not consider the subordinate clause to make my decision, do I? That is, when I make the decision, I consider only the main clause in relation to the greater context.
In other words, the main clause above could be past perfect or past simple, but it would depend on when the refusing happens in relation to the overall tense of the passage.
2) Also, how come we have a past perfect to show that one action happened before another in the past, but we have no auxiliary verb to show-taking the example above-that the 'until' clause happens after the past simple main clause 'refused'? I know that 'until' does this for us, but the past perfect still is used when words like 'before' are still there.
Thanks
1) When choosing the tense and aspect of the main clause, I do not consider the subordinate clause to make my decision, do I? That is, when I make the decision, I consider only the main clause in relation to the greater context.
In other words, the main clause above could be past perfect or past simple, but it would depend on when the refusing happens in relation to the overall tense of the passage.
2) Also, how come we have a past perfect to show that one action happened before another in the past, but we have no auxiliary verb to show-
Thanks
Top answer
English 1b3 I refused to go, until I saw all the pictures. Do you mean that you insisted on seeing the pictures before you left, or that you changed your mind about refusing to go when you saw the pictures?
- English 1b3 I refused to go, until I saw all the pictures.
- Do you mean that you insisted on seeing the pictures before you left, or that you changed your mind about refusing to go when you saw the pictures?
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5 Answers
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English 1b3I refused to go, until I saw all the pictures.Do you mean that you insisted on seeing the pictures before you left, or that you changed your mind about refusing to go when you saw the pictures?
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If you want the first meaning then it should be "I refused to go until I had seen all the pictures." (no comma).
If you want the second meaning then, depending on the clarity of the context, it's probably wise to spell it out more clearly to avoid ambiguity. As it stands, it's easy to read your sentence as an inferior attempt at the first meaning. I guess you could say something li
If you want the second meaning then, depending on the clarity of the context, it's probably wise to spell it out more clearly to avoid ambiguity. As it stands, it's easy to read your sentence as an inferior attempt at the first meaning. I guess you could say something li
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I actually already created a thread discussing the two meanings and the ambiguities within. Have you anything to add in reference to choosing the tense and aspect of the main clause? I was told when choosing the tense of the main clause, I make my decision soely based on the time the main clause happens in relation to the greater context (the overall tense). But I thought this didn't sound right,
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English 1b3I would normally say "Before I walked home, I bought myself dinner."
Before I walked home, I had bought myself dinner.
Trying to think of similar structures that I would naturally form, I came up with "Before I knew it, I'd spent all my money". I suppose this illustrates the same principle, but to me it seems to have a more
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