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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Use of "had" - perfect tense?
Hello,
Can anyone give me a grammatical explanation for the differences between the statements below? Some folks will use had and others will omit it. I've noticed that my tendency is to use the second statements below as opposed to using "had" or "had been". Am I grammatical incorrect or is it just a matter of preference. Can anyone help me out? (By the way, I am aware of the past perfect tense rules but sometimes when it is used in conversation, its usage seems arbitrary.)
1) I wonder if the people who had been in charge at the time knew the difference.
2) I wonder if the people who were in charge at the time knew the difference.
1) What had happened was I went to the store at 8AM. Then I went to school.
2) What happened was I went to the store at 8AM. Then I went to school.
Here is an article on npr.org that illustrates my point. Notice the difference between the title and the first line.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2007/09/what_had_happened_was.html
Can anyone give me a grammatical explanation for the differences between the statements below? Some folks will use had and others will omit it. I've noticed that my tendency is to use the second statements below as opposed to using "had" or "had been". Am I grammatical incorrect or is it just a matter of preference. Can anyone help me out? (By the way, I am aware of the past perfect tense rules but sometimes when it is used in conversation, its usage seems arbitrary.)
1) I wonder if the people who had been in charge at the time knew the difference.
2) I wonder if the people who were in charge at the time knew the difference.
1) What had happened was I went to the store at 8AM. Then I went to school.
2) What happened was I went to the store at 8AM. Then I went to school.
Here is an article on npr.org that illustrates my point. Notice the difference between the title and the first line.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2007/09/what_had_happened_was.html
Top answer
The past perfect ("had been", "had happened") etc. takes you further back in time, relative to a time that's already in the past. In both cases, if you are simply describing something that happened in the past then I don't see any reason to use it, so the second versions seem fine to me.
- The past perfect ("had been", "had happened") etc.
- takes you further back in time, relative to a time that's already in the past.
- In both cases, if you are simply describing something that happened in the past then I don't see any reason to use it, so the second versions seem fine to me.
- Examples of the use of the past perfect: "Yesterday I got home in a really bad mood.
- e.
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3 Answers
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The past perfect ("had been", "had happened") etc. takes you further back in time, relative to a time that's already in the past. In both cases, if you are simply describing something that happened in the past then I don't see any reason to use it, so the second versions seem fine to me.
Examples of the use of the past perfect:
"Yesterday I got home in a really bad mood. What
Examples of the use of the past perfect:
"Yesterday I got home in a really bad mood. What
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If you tell the story in the order it occurred, you don't need the past perfect.
I went to the store at 8. Then I went to school at 9.
If you stop the story to go backwards in time, you usually use the past perfect to indicate this.
I went to school at 9. I had already gone to the store at 8.
CJ
I went to the store at 8. Then I went to school at 9.
If you stop the story to go backwards in time, you usually use the past perfect to indicate this.
I went to school at 9. I had already gone to the store at 8.
CJ
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