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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

What's the difference between these 2 sentences?

This is a symbol for those who have tried escaping.

vs

This is a symbol for those who had tried escaping.

Are they both accurate? Does the had suggest the people escaping in the past? And does the have suggest that the people had just done it?
  

Top answer

Hi, Consider these simpler examples. They have cooked dinner. They did it at some point in the past.

— Clive

  • Hi, Consider these simpler examples.
  • They have cooked dinner.
  • They did it at some point in the past.
  • Maybe a long time ago, maybe not.
  • They had cooked dinner .
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3 Answers
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Hi,

Consider these simpler examples.

They have cooked dinner. They did it at some point in the past. Maybe a long time ago, maybe not.

They had cooked dinner. They did it at some point in the past before some other point in the past.
eg Tom came home at 8pm. yesterday. Mary had cooked dinner.

This is a symbol for those who have tried escaping
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I get different meanings from the two sentences.
AnonymousThis is a symbol for those who have tried escaping.
"Have tried" is a very indefinite reference to time before (or up to) now. Thus, this tends to suggest that more people might possibly try escaping in the future.
AnonymousThis is a symbol for those who had tried escaping.
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AnonymousThis is a symbol for those who have tried escaping.
The attempts to escape continued until the time this sentence was uttered or written.
AnonymousThis is a symbol for those who had tried escaping.
The attempts to escape continued until some time in the past. (That time is -- hopefully! -- made clear by the context
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