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Nkspb Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

The sequence of tenses after "than"

Hello everybody Emotion: smile
Today I heard a phrase like:

"It was better than I have expected before"

Maybe we can say this when talking about a recent action we are surprised about, and instead of the past simple we could have used the present perfect in the first part of the sentence also?

Why was the present tense used? Is it a correct usage? Thanks!
  

Top answer

nkspb Why was the present tense used? Is it a correct usage? It is an error; I don't think a native speaker would say that, even by accident.

— Mister Micawber

  • nkspb Why was the present tense used?
  • Is it a correct usage?
  • It is an error; I don't think a native speaker would say that, even by accident.
  • Here are the choices: It was better than I expected before.
  • It was better than I had expected before.
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3 Answers
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nkspbWhy was the present tense used? Is it a correct usage?
It is an error; I don't think a native speaker would say that, even by accident. Here are the choices:

It was better than I expected before.
It was better than I had expected before.
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Hi there! I'd like to clarify one more thing, please Emotion: smile

Today I saw in a grammar book a sentence:

"It was the mos
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nkspbIs it true that using the Past Perfect in the descriptive clause:"It was the most useful advice I'd ever had."can mean both things - that it was the most useful advice at the time I was told it OR it is still the most useful now,
No; it only means the first one.
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