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Eipjoo Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Why perfect tense?
In the example:
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle - Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps (1) they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps (2) they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger (3) had come in.
"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.
***
From the criterion of ‘all three of them disappeared,’ I can understand why the writer applies the perfect tense of (2). Then why she doesn’t apply the same rule to (1)?
The (3) has happened after ‘all three of them disappeared.’ Then why she applies the perfect tense?
Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle - Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps (1) they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps (2) they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger (3) had come in.
"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.
***
From the criterion of ‘all three of them disappeared,’ I can understand why the writer applies the perfect tense of (2). Then why she doesn’t apply the same rule to (1)?
The (3) has happened after ‘all three of them disappeared.’ Then why she applies the perfect tense?
Top answer
’ Then why she applies the perfect tense? It is still before now, and Rowling ran out of verb tenses, that's all.
- ’ Then why she applies the perfect tense?
- It is still before now, and Rowling ran out of verb tenses, that's all.
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2 Answers
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eipjooThe (3) has happened after ‘all three of them disappeared.’ Then why she applies the perfect tense?It is still before now, and Rowling ran out of verb tenses, that's all.
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