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Seagull Posted 7 years ago
Grammar

Why do you use the past perfect in a case like this

Hello everyone. I have a question.

Regarding the following sentence:

As it had rained that night, I could not observe the moon.

I don't quite understand why the past perfect is used in this sentence. I've come up with an answer to this question, but I'm uncertain whether or not it is right. Could you please comment on my thought? --

Here, for example, the speaker had expected that he could observe the moon that night because it was sunny in the morning. Unfortunately, however, the weather got cloudy in the afternoon and it even started to rain in the early evening. The sky was covered with dark clouds that night that the observation he had planned could never been done.

In this situation, the weather was fine enough in the morning, but before the night came, it had changed into a state where one could never observe the moon. I think that the speaker expresses "the change of state" by using the past perfect tense. What do you think?

  

Top answer

I'd say that the writer used the wrong tense. His sentence says that the rain came before he tried to observe the moon. I can't think of any effect the rain could have had that would have prevented him from doing that.

— Anonymous

  • I'd say that the writer used the wrong tense.
  • His sentence says that the rain came before he tried to observe the moon.
  • I can't think of any effect the rain could have had that would have prevented him from doing that.
  • If the sentence was "As it had rained that night, there were puddles on the ground", that would make sense.
  • "
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2 Answers
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I'd say that the writer used the wrong tense. His sentence says that the rain came before he tried to observe the moon. I can't think of any effect the rain could have had that would have prevented him from doing that. If the sentence was "As it had rained that night, there were puddles on the ground", that would make sense. I would have written "As it was raining that night, I could not obser

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"had rained" simply indicates that the rain had already stopped by the time you planned to observe the moon. Remember, the past perfect marks the earlier of two events/actions.

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