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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Why a past perfect necessary here?
Hi. If the sentences below are correct, why do you think one has a past perfect tense and the other doesn't?
1.At last, he fired his employee as he had warned through his executives.
2.At last, he thanked all the people who showed up.
I think Mr.M said something like we don't usually change tenses for the dependent clause. Do you think the part "who showed up" is a dependent clause?
1.At last, he fired his employee as he had warned through his executives.
2.At last, he thanked all the people who showed up.
I think Mr.M said something like we don't usually change tenses for the dependent clause. Do you think the part "who showed up" is a dependent clause?
Top answer
This is interesting. I would have never paused for a moment over one of these sentences, before writing it down with the tense used in your examples. With number one, if you choose the Past Simple for both the clauses, the meaning will change: both the actions (the firing and the warning) will be perceived as simultaneous, which is a nonsense in the given context.
- This is interesting.
- I would have never paused for a moment over one of these sentences, before writing it down with the tense used in your examples.
- With number one, if you choose the Past Simple for both the clauses, the meaning will change: both the actions (the firing and the warning) will be perceived as simultaneous, which is a nonsense in the given context.
- On the contrary, in the second sentence the sequence of actions is quite clear without the Past Perfect.
- I don't think shifting is needed even in "I thought he had thanked everybody who came to his birthday"...
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3 Answers
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This is interesting. I would have never paused for a moment over one of these sentences, before writing it down with the tense used in your examples.
With number one, if you choose the Past Simple for both the clauses, the meaning will change: both the actions (the firing and the warning) will be perceived as simultaneous, which is a nonsense in the given context.
On the contrary, in the s
With number one, if you choose the Past Simple for both the clauses, the meaning will change: both the actions (the firing and the warning) will be perceived as simultaneous, which is a nonsense in the given context.
On the contrary, in the s
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Hi,
An additional little point.
1.At last, he fired his employee as he had warned through his executives.
2.At last, he thanked all the people who showed up.
You appear to mean 'finally'. Or you could say 'lastly'.
'At last' is normally used for an event that has been long, and
An additional little point.
1.At last, he fired his employee as he had warned through his executives.
2.At last, he thanked all the people who showed up.
You appear to mean 'finally'. Or you could say 'lastly'.
'At last' is normally used for an event that has been long, and
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Anonymouswhy do you think one has a past perfect tense and the other doesn't?The showing up and being thanked happen almost at the same time. On the other hand, the warning could easily have happened in a completely different time period from the time of the firing (maybe months before).
CJ
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