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Ant_222 Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Tense problem

Hello all,
I again have run into a problem with tense usage in a narrative context:
The hero is descending down a long tunnel and here's how he describes the engravings on the walls:
"They seemed to record a slow decadence of the ancient stock, coupled with a growing ferocity toward the outside world from which it was driven by the desert."
It is a narration, so why wasn't the Past Perfect used for "drive": "...from which it had been driven [ages ago!] by the desert"?
Thanks in advance,
Anton
  

Top answer

So the past perfect 'had' is used there.

— Renjithvsathyan

  • So the past perfect 'had' is used there.
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4 Answers
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if there are two things happend in the past and to indicate the first thing we use past perfect

eg- The train had gone when i reached the station

here, the first thing happend is train went before i reached .So the past perfect 'had' is used there.
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But the problem is that it is the Past Simple that is used... And I can't neither undestand nor explain this usage.
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simple past means there is only the past form of verb and no decoration is added to the verb
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renjithvsathyansimple past means there is only the past form of verb and no decoration is added to the verb
That is the syntax of the Past Simple. But I don't understand why this tense was used in the sentece I cited.
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