Questions tagged [past-perfect]
Questions about Past Perfect tense
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The usage of the past perfect in past tense books [migrated]
I've chosen these examples from a book written in the past tense where one character remembers something:
They'd fought well but were heavily outnumbered.
(In my opinion, the sentence should be: ...
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What is the name for the form of the word "been" in the Past Perfect Continuous?
In the Past Perfect Continuous what is the name of the form of the word "been"?
For example, I had made a form table like this:
Subject
aux verb
verb -ing form
I, she, he, it, you, we, ...
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3
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Can Past Perfect Continuous tense be used to say that something continued beyond the specified event if we don't even use the duration?
Reference: In the book 'Advanced Grammar in Use by Martin Hewings' on page no. 14 it is written that 'The past perfect continuous can be used to talk about a situation or activity that went on before ...
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How can the preterite in the second clause place its event BEFORE that of the past perfect’s event in the first clause?
Here the chronology seems inverted as regards to the proper use of the past
perfect and the preterite to order two different events that both occurred
in the past:
He had not been[past perfect] happy ...
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Can "hence" be used to refer to time forward relative a past event in the context of the past event (moving from past perfect to simple past)?
There is a good discussion here (Referring to past times with "hence") that concludes that hence can't be used like "ago" to refer to a past event, not even to describe how much ...
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3
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Using Past Perfect Simple/Continuous during another event in the past described in Past Simple?
I've been working through a grammar book "English for Everyone - English Grammar Guide" and I've stumbled upon some sentences regarding usage of Past Perfect that I can't wrap my head around....
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Is it wrong to place the duration of an activity before the place where that activity was held? (Consider the following example)
Can we say:
"Before I became a singer, I had been a hall monitor for almost five years at the Stuart Little Elementary School for the Musically Inclined Children."
Instead of:
"Before I ...
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Incorrect use of 'had' in this past perfect tense
I saw this fill in the blanks question in my exam:
Before we ___ our meal, he ___ us back to work.
There were four options to this question:
finished, had ordered
have finished, ordered
had ...
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He died after he was ill for a long time
(14) He died after he had been ill for a long time.
(15) She told me his name after he had left.
In a 1989 paper titled "Perfect and pluperfect: What is the relationship?", Raphael Salkie ...
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Use of Past Perfect if an interlocutor doesn't know about a moment in the past
We use Past Perfect to speak about actions before some moment in the past.
What if my speaking partner doesn't know about a moment in the past?
I had done everything.
(I don't mention it, but in ...
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They hadn't finished playing by 10.30. / They didn't finish playing by 10.30 [closed]
They hadn't finished playing by 10.30.
They didn't finish playing by 10.30.
I have my own explanation what the difference is. Could you please agree or disagree with it?
Past perfect helps us to say ...
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Infinitives of purpose with the past perfect [closed]
In the sentence:
"There were people everywhere. They thronged the streets, choking the
alleys. They had come in their thousands to see the light show"
I would group the infinitive of ...
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1
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Correct usage of 'had' [closed]
I was recently studying a paragraph in which I came across a sentence, which was below:
The British king, Charles I, had inherited a very difficult financial situation from his father.
However, I ...
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Meaning of the sentence "The thieves had run away when the police arrived."
This is from the Quirk's CGEL section 4.24 - The past perfective:
Adverbials of time position, when used with the past perfective, can
identify either T2 or T3. Placed initially, they often identify ...
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Past perfect when the action is separated from the present by facts that are common knowledge to the speakers but not mentioned
Page 59 of Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference reads:
There is a tense in French which is formed like the English past
perfect, and its usage corresponds generally to the English tense....
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Using the structure "by + time expression + past perfect" to describe a graph
Is the structure "by + time expression + past perfect" suitable for describing a graph regarding an event that we cannot exclusively say that it had happened before the specified time ...
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A case of usage of past perfect tense
I hit this in the "The Making of a Nation" series.
The United States had refused to recognize the government in Moscow after the Bolsheviks took control in 1917.
This sentence seems odd to ...
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How to differentiate the short form of "would" and "had"? [closed]
How do you differentiate:
I'd always longed to see... = I would always longed to see...
VS
I'd always longed to see.. = I had always longed to see..
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Simple Past or Past Perfect - Sequence of Tenses [duplicate]
Could someone help me understand which tense (Simple Past or Past Perfect) would be more appropriate in the following examples, and why?
I knew I asked the right person.
I knew I had asked the right ...
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How to use a past event as the subject of a sentence?
I am not a native speaker. My question in the title arise from an actual sentence I wanted to write. "Phone rang interrupted."
Imagine this timeline for context:
Employee was talking to ...
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Saying "I could have been on time" when still you have some time before the appointment
On a different website I asked which sentence is more proper:
The game starts in 5 minutes. If I had taken that train, I could have been on time.
The game starts in 5 minutes. If I had taken that ...
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Why is past perfect used here?
I came across this God of War video, and heard the following sentence at 1:14:
Where one journey ended, a new had begun.
Grammatically, what I understand from this is that the "new journey"...
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Why is past simple being used in these sentences instead of past perfect? [duplicate]
I'm doing an Anki Deck that consists of "Advanced English Grammar" and I don't understand why in examples below I can't use the form I'm suggesting, but instead have to use the form that is ...
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Past simple and pluperfect with “before”
Which of the following is correct?
“I had learned to sing before I learned to dance.”
“I learned to sing before I had learned to dance.”
“I learned to sing before I learned to dance.”
I think only ...
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Before proving or before being proven [closed]
Today I encountered this sentence.
Before him being proven guilty, everybody thought that he was innocent.
But I think there is another way to write it easily. Please correct me if I am wrong.
...
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Unsure about the usage of Past Perfect Continuous in a specific sentence
Is it correct to use the Past Perfect Continuous form I had never been considering
in the sentence
Before I met you, I had never been considering visiting Italy
?
According to Grammarly,
The past ...
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3
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Perfect Continuous Passive Participle Clause?
Having been being lost in the woods for hours, he was finally found by emergency services.
Does this mean:
After he had been being lost in the woods for hours, he was finally found by emergency ...
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"Would rather" in narrative past
Let's say that we have a sentence like:
He would rather the door didn't open.
Which means that he has a preference that the door wouldn't open. How can we express it in the past? - That he preferred ...
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was... has been vs was... had been
I wrote a sentence by myself as follows:
It WAS acclaimed as a masterpiece that HAD changed the world.
I am confused if the "had changed" here is correct because I intended to say "...
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Why "I already said" is correct? I am confused with using past perfect and already
I have to improve my English, and I live in the USA.
I am confused with using past perfect and past simple after "already".
Is past simple correct after "already"?
I know, some ...
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Using more than one past perfect tense with time clauses and "last time I..."
I know I can express things in many different ways, and that maybe I could find alternative ways to form the sentences below, but I'm just trying to understand the use of the past perfect in certain ...
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Can you use the past perfect from a present reference point?
I often find myself using past perfect in a sort of stylized way that I can't justify logically. I am writing a short description of the Matrix, and what I want to say is:
In the film, a programmer ...
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had vs no had - what is the difference [duplicate]
Under Roth's direction, the press Chamber issued several decrees to domestic news outlets in the weeks leading up to the ceremony.
What if we add a " had " in front of issued ? Will that ...
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3
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Negative Present Perfect
I have a question regarding negative present perfect for past events with effects extending into the present.
Scenario: Just leaving coffee shop with friend #2. “That was fantastic; I haven’t seen ...
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Use of ‘had’ in Indian English
Soon after she encountered the experience while proceeding to New Delhi, the Thoothukudi MP had tweeted, “Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if I am an Indian, when I asked her to speak to ...
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"I had fallen asleep" vs "I fell asleep" [duplicate]
Which sentence below is grammatically correct?
I didn't answer your questions because I had fallen asleep early last night.
I didn't answer your questions because I fell asleep early last night.
I'...
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Irregular Verbs with Compound Predicates
Are both of these sentences acceptable?
We had manufactured it but gave it to someone else.
We had manufactured it but given it to someone else.
Is there a rule that says the past perfect must be ...
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Is it true that it's OK to omit the pluperfect (past-perfect) in casual speech?
The pluperfect is used to indicate what is relatively earlier than the compared clause. But in conversation I hear people omit it all the time. Examples:
I haven't spoken to the President since the ...
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Past perfect tense and Since
Lenny had slept most of the way since leaving Texas.
I found this sentence from Cambridge Dictionary. I have been taught that you use past perfect tense to emphasize an event in the past that took ...
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Can we use specific time when using past simple with past perfect?
I wonder if it's possible and correct to put a specific time like this.
I had finished my homework at 6 am. before I went to school at 7 am.
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What is the passive voice of a sentence that is structured as 'past perfect' before 'simple past'
For example, how would the sentence below be expressed in the passive voice?
I had completed all tasks before they arrived.
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Past of it'd better be
I was just watching TV and one of the characters in the show said something like "I don't know what happened there, but it'd've better been good".
Realizing that the deconstruction of that ...
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Had had confusion [closed]
1.Last year I had had the idea to buy a new television, but now I'm not sure I want to.
2 Last year I had the idea to buy a new television, but now I'm not sure I want to
Both of these sentences ...
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Past Perfect (Progressive) problem
I was helping my nephew with some homework but this time I reached my limit. I am not quite sure what the correct answer is here or even if there is only one good answer. One has to finish the ...
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Past-perfect tense
Consider the following question:
Monica had dinner at home. She ______ dinner when she ______ home.
(a) ate, came
(b) had eaten, had come
(c) had eaten, came
(d) ate, had come
According to me answer ...
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2
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Past perfect tense
Consider the following question:
The doorbell woke me up. When the doorbell _______________, I _______________ up.
The possible answer for the above statement is:
rang, woke
had rung, woke
had rung, ...
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"...to have been" or "... to having been"?
When I help someone and the person thanks me, instead of saying "You're welcome", I want to express that "I am happy that I was able to help you", but I want to say it with a much ...
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Past Perfect or Past Simple
I want to understand if we need to keep using past perfect in a long sentence. (in speaking and writing english)
For example,
"I want to tell you a story that happened to me in summer. I started ...
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Question about use of Past Perfect Tense
Could you explain the difference between the two sentences in the quote?
Bates threw the grunt into the sky as soon as we'd made vacuum.
One of the surviving grunts grabbed the carcass and jumped ...
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"Have you seen him recently?" or "Did you see him recently?" [closed]
Have you seen him recently?
or
Did you see him recently?
Which of these is correct?
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