The sentence is
I bought a bottle of milk on Friday night, and I found that it had gone sour the following morning.
I think the past perfect tense is weird with "the following morning." Am I right?
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Sounds correct, but wordy. Better: I bought a bottle of milk Friday night; the next morning it was sour. (14 words vs. 20 words)– rhetoricianMay 24, 2013 at 12:35
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2 Answers
This is ordinary and correct.
The clauses concerning purchase and finding are consecutive narrative pasts.
The clause with past perfect had gone sour is subordinate to the second of those clauses only, and is unaffected by the first:
On the following morning I found that it had gone sour [at some earlier time during the night].
answered May 24, 2013 at 1:57
It does sound weird to me. I suggest that you swap the subordinate clause with the main clause to make the sentence easier to understand:
I bought a bottle of milk on Friday night, and the following morning I found that it had gone sour.
