Timeline for Before 2000 I *had visited* Poland, Ukraine, France, The Netherlands - incorrect sentence?
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| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 5, 2015 at 14:41 | vote | accept | TH92 | ||
| Dec 4, 2015 at 21:28 | comment | added | Greg Lee | Try "by 2000" instead of "before 2000*. The former states the ending point in time of the interval during which the visits occurred, while the latter refers to the interval itself. The past perfect needs an ending point. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 20:10 | comment | added | Peter Shor | Suppose your paragraph is: "Before 2000 I had visited Poland, Ukraine, France, and The Netherlands. In 2000, I visited 30 more countries". Then the past perfect is better than the simple past. Suppose your paragraph is: "Before 2000 I visited Poland, Ukraine, France, and The Netherlands. I haven't visited any foreign countries since then, but I have plans to go to India next year." Then the simple past is much better. | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 20:07 | comment | added | choster | It all depends on how you are framing the time and what narrative you are trying to convey. Simple past might be fine. Simple present could be fine, too, in storytelling. In other cases, before 2000 I would visit or before 2000 I did visit might be appropriate. Why does your teacher say you cannot use past perfect? | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 20:04 | answer | added | Era | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 4, 2015 at 19:59 | history | asked | TH92 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |