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Minhuoc Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

The children cooped

The words "all" made me hesitate to decide which tense to be used "the simple past" or the past perfect continuous.

"The children cooped /had been cooping all day because the weather was so bad."

Thanks.
  

Top answer

The children WERE cooped UP all day... or The children has been cooped UP all day... "Cooped up" goes together - one does not "coop" as a verb.

— BarbaraPA

  • The children WERE cooped UP all day...
  • or The children has been cooped UP all day...
  • "Cooped up" goes together - one does not "coop" as a verb.
  • Although one can apparently invigilate.
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8 Answers
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The children WERE cooped UP all day... or

The children has been cooped UP all day...

"Cooped up" goes together - one does not "coop" as a verb.

Although one can apparently invigilate.
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right, requires passive in this context

to coop:
1 : to confine in a narrow restricted often crowded area : deprive of free motion by cramped quarters -- often used with up<poor emigrants, cooped up in their steerage quarters -- Ruth Park>
2 : to place or keep in a coop :
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Grammar GeekThe children WERE cooped UP all day... or

The children has been cooped UP all day...

"Cooped up" goes together - one does not "coop" as a verb.

Although one can apparently invigilate.

I guess you mean "the children have been cooped all day" ?
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Oh! I HATE it when I do that. Emotion: embarrassed Like the saying goes, haste makes waste. Sorry!

Yes, Pienne, exactly. The children
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Thanks all for your kind help.

But please look at my sentence again. Is it right that the present perfect is used when the following sentence uses the past simple.

"Children have been cooped indoors all day because the weather was so bad."

I think "have been cooped" should be "had been cooped".

Thanks.
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Thanks all for your kind help.

But please look at my sentence again. I think "have been cooped" should be "had been cooped".

1. Children have been cooped indoors all day because the weather was so bad.

2. Children had been cooped indoors all day because the weather was so bad.

Thanks.
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As this seems to be a sequence-of-tenses problem, we can probably dispense with the controversial "cooped" and say "kept".

You need one of these.

The children have been kept indoors all day because the weather [has been / is] so bad.
The children had been kept indoors all day because the weather [had been / was] so bad.

CJ
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