The sequence of tenses (the past perfect)
Hi there,
Below is a final sentence from the narrative about the past.
I will never forget the awful feeling of shame that my parents had caught me doing something that they had forbidden me to do.
Why would the authors of the narrative insist on the past perfect tense here? The story is over. There is no need to highlight any order of events in a concluding sentence - they all seem to exist in the 'indivisible' past. It is just a flashback. Why not 'caught' and 'forbade' instead?
Top answer
Paul Y It is just a flashback. Just??? The idea of flashback is central to the use of the past perfect!
- Paul Y It is just a flashback.
- Just???
- The idea of flashback is central to the use of the past perfect!
- Most narratives move forward in time (though they are almost always told in the past, of course).
- If you reach a point in your story where you haven't told the listener about something you should have mentioned earlier, you mark it with the past perfect tense when you do mention it.
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Paul YIt is just a flashback.
Just??? The idea of flashback is central to the use of the past perfect!
Most narratives move forward in time (though they are almost always told in the past, of course). If you reach a point in your story where you haven't told the listener about something you should have mentioned earlier, you mark it with the past pe
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