Who came from

(a) John met some tourists who came/were from Japan and Malaysia.

(b) John met tourists from Japan and Europe. -- OK

(c) John met some tourists. They were from / They came from Japan and Malaysia. -- OK

What about the Past Perfect?

(d) John met some tourists who had come from Japan.

Anton

Ant_222What about the Past Perfect?

(d) John met some tourists who had come from Japan

Yes, that's possible too.

If I simply meant that the tourists are Japanese and live in Japan then I would tend to say "tourists who came from Japan" (or, more simply of course, "Japanese tourists").

If I wanted to emphasise that the

Mr WordyIf I simply meant that the tourists are Japanese and live in Japan then I would tend to say "tourists who came from Japan"

.

To me it looks as though you are sort of treating the verb "to come (from)" as non-perfective in this case. Just a non-native's random thought...

Thank you for the clarification,

Anton

"to come from" is a common idiomatic way of saying that someone was born/raised in a particular place, or lives there, or is of a certain nationality. Often the literal sense of "travelling" is suppressed. (Forgive me if you already know all this.)

Mr WordyForgive me if you already know all this.

Yes, I know it, but it didn't come to my mind and had lain somewhere in the depths, so thanks for reassuring me.

Anton

Thanks. Can I say,

(a) They met some tourists who came from Japan.

(b) We met most of tourists from Japan.

(c) The flowers and plants were imported from Japan.

(a) and (c) are OK, but (b) sounds strange.

Did you mean to say: «Most of the tourists that we met were from Japan»?

Anton

Yes. That's what I mean. By the way, can I say:

They met the tourists that / which came from Japan. They walked along in the garden.

Yes, Vincent, although I don't understand why you have chosen to use the definite article before "tourists". Are they some specific tourists mentioned in the text before?

Also, regarding the second sentence. If it's telling what the tourists were doing wheny you met them, you should use the Past Simple Progressive tense ("were walking").

Anton

EDIT: And take into accou