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IanKCH Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Use of Past Perfect versus Simple Past to denote time of event
Hi,
I recently did a grammar exercise and am confused by the below sentence:
"I (got) up to see what it was, but I (did not see) anything, so I (went) back to bed."
It was a fill-in-the-blank exercise and the brackets contain the answers to the question. What I am confused about is why "got" was used instead of "had got". Why was the past simple used for all three events? Doesn't this imply that all three events took place at the same time?
Since the past perfect denotes an earlier event in the past, and I would need to get up before I could see anything, shouldn't we have used "had got"?
I recently did a grammar exercise and am confused by the below sentence:
"I (got) up to see what it was, but I (did not see) anything, so I (went) back to bed."
It was a fill-in-the-blank exercise and the brackets contain the answers to the question. What I am confused about is why "got" was used instead of "had got". Why was the past simple used for all three events? Doesn't this imply that all three events took place at the same time?
Since the past perfect denotes an earlier event in the past, and I would need to get up before I could see anything, shouldn't we have used "had got"?
Top answer
Hi, and welcome to the forums. When the order of events is very clear, there is no need for the past perfect. You can also use it to emphasize that at least a little bit of time passed between the first action in the past and the second in the past.
- Hi, and welcome to the forums.
- When the order of events is very clear, there is no need for the past perfect.
- You can also use it to emphasize that at least a little bit of time passed between the first action in the past and the second in the past.
- I had gotten up because I heard a noise, and then I got thirsty, so I was in the kitchen getting a drink when the space ship landed on the roof over the bedroom.
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1 Answers
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Hi, and welcome to the forums.
When the order of events is very clear, there is no need for the past perfect. You can also use it to emphasize that at least a little bit of time passed between the first action in the past and the second in the past.
I had gotten up because I heard a noise, and then I got thirsty, so I was in the kitchen getting a drink when the space ship la
When the order of events is very clear, there is no need for the past perfect. You can also use it to emphasize that at least a little bit of time passed between the first action in the past and the second in the past.
I had gotten up because I heard a noise, and then I got thirsty, so I was in the kitchen getting a drink when the space ship la
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