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Stenka25 Posted 19 years ago
I have a sentence like the following :
Yesterday, your son sounded like he's always sounded.
In this sentence "he's always sounded" seems like "he has always sounded."
But, to me, it should be "he had always sounded" because the tense of the main clause is past (sounded).
Am I right?
Grammar
Tense problem
I have a sentence like the following :
Yesterday, your son sounded like he's always sounded.
In this sentence "he's always sounded" seems like "he has always sounded."
But, to me, it should be "he had always sounded" because the tense of the main clause is past (sounded).
Am I right?
Top answer
Hi Stenka I see no reasonable need for the past perfect at all. In fact, you could easily write the end of that sentence with the simple present tense: Yesterday, your son sounded like he always sounds .
- Hi Stenka I see no reasonable need for the past perfect at all.
- In fact, you could easily write the end of that sentence with the simple present tense: Yesterday, your son sounded like he always sounds .
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3 Answers
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Hi Stenka
I see no reasonable need for the past perfect at all. In fact, you could easily write the end of that sentence with the simple present tense:
Yesterday, your son sounded like he always sounds.
.
I see no reasonable need for the past perfect at all. In fact, you could easily write the end of that sentence with the simple present tense:
Yesterday, your son sounded like he always sounds.
.
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to me, it should be "he had always sounded" because the tense of the main clause is past (sounded)It does seem that way, but the conventions of tense sequence are broken when comparing one time period to another. Here you're comparing "yesterday" to "always", using the comparative term "like".
Compare:
He is not as polite as he was years ago.
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