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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar
Woud you use past perfect tenses here?
Hi.
Can you also tell me why you would use the tenses you will (would?) use? I think Mr.M said (I am guessing wildly about what he might have said since I don't remember the content of what he said) something to the effect that the tense change doesn't usually extend to dependant clauses? Are the underlined parts dependant clauses to you? Also, does the thing mentioned previously extend to these examples?
He told Jane some things Joe had sent him to say.
He bought a bike that he had been asked to.
He bought a bike that he had thought about. -- I might have used a similar sentence to this to ask a tense question in the past.
Can you also tell me why you would use the tenses you will (would?) use? I think Mr.M said (I am guessing wildly about what he might have said since I don't remember the content of what he said) something to the effect that the tense change doesn't usually extend to dependant clauses? Are the underlined parts dependant clauses to you? Also, does the thing mentioned previously extend to these examples?
He told Jane some things Joe had sent him to say.
He bought a bike that he had been asked to.
He bought a bike that he had thought about. -- I might have used a similar sentence to this to ask a tense question in the past.
Top answer
These seem like reasonable places to use past perfect. If the order of past actions is clear, the dependent clause (just as with coordinate clauses) needn't be in past perfect, and native speakers tend to prefer the simple past to the past perfect just as they prefer the simple present to a future form in the dependent clause. If there is a possibility of ambiguity in the order of events, however-- or if you wish to stress the precedence-- then past perfect is called for.
- These seem like reasonable places to use past perfect.
- If the order of past actions is clear, the dependent clause (just as with coordinate clauses) needn't be in past perfect, and native speakers tend to prefer the simple past to the past perfect just as they prefer the simple present to a future form in the dependent clause.
- If there is a possibility of ambiguity in the order of events, however-- or if you wish to stress the precedence-- then past perfect is called for.
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3 Answers
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These seem like reasonable places to use past perfect. If the order of past actions is clear, the dependent clause (just as with coordinate clauses) needn't be in past perfect, and native speakers tend to prefer the simple past to the past perfect just as they prefer the simple present to a future form in the dependent clause.
If there is a possibility of ambiguity in the order of
These seem like reasonable places to use past perfect. If the order of past actions is clear, the dependent clause (just as with coordinate clauses) needn't be in past perfect, and native speakers tend to prefer the simple past to the past perfect just as they prefer the simple present to a future form in the dependent clause.
If there is a possibility of ambiguity in the order of
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Thank you. Would you give me an example of native speakers preferring the simple present over a future form in the case you were talking about?
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