candy  +  127612 Tue, 16 Aug 05 06:17 PM I'm really confused......         :-S           Could you please explain the difference between the two for me?   1.  It has to have been just right. 2.  It had to be just right.   Many , many thanks in advance.             Candy   candy Joined on Mon, Sep 8 2003 Full Member 396 Difference Between

	K.O.  +  127702 Tue, 16 Aug 05 11:48 PM Hi, I  agree candy that it is a bit confusing not that I met  the first one before but still  it seems correct. so,  anybody can tell the difference? thanks K.O. Joined on Fri, Jun 3 2005 Turkey Full Member 180 .O.

	MrPedantic  +  127713 Wed, 17 Aug 05 12:54 AM Hello Candy 1. It is necessary now that X was right. 2. It was necessary then that X was right. The first is a rather rare construction. MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 13,616 ...opella forensis / adducit febris... Constructions

	rvw  +  127724 Wed, 17 Aug 05 01:25 AM Have has many meanings as a transitive verb and two usages as a verbal auxiliary. Transitive verb: -I have a car. -He had three sons. -He had his opponent cornered. -I have a letter to write. He had a concert to conduct.  [to feel compulsion, obligation, or necessity in regard to -- used with a noun object followed by to and the infinitive] ---Webster's Third New International Dictionary Verbal auxiliary 1: -(to be in a position or state marked by an action or state completed or ended or virtually completed or ended -- used with the past participle to form the present perfect, past perfect, or future perfect [has gone home][have been here already][the army had already gone home][will have finished dinner by the time the guests arrive])---Webster's Third New International Dictionary Verbal auxiliary 2: -to be compelled or under obligation or necessity -- used with the infinitive with to [have to see a doctor][have to pay taxes][had to be home by six] ---Webster's Third New International Dictionary I think both of your sentences use have in the sense of Verbal auxiliary 2: a form of have followed by the infinitive to be. There is the sense of obligation or necessity: must.  However, I would change the form of sentence 1, using the present perfect form of have, plus to be. Sentence 1:  The meaning of this sentence becomes clear through a conjugation: present:              It has to be just right. past:                    It had to be just right. future:                 It will have to be just right. present perfect:  It has had to be just right. past perfect:       It had had to be just right. future perfect:    It will have had to be just right. Example:  For Mission Control to get to this point, the countdown has had to be just right. Sentence 2:  Had is in the simple past tense.  [Yesterday] it had to be just right.] [The weather had to be just right for Armstrong's final Tour de France.] rvw Joined on Sun, Nov 28 2004 Woodstock, Georgia, USA Full Member 350 Regards, Verbs, Tenses, Nouns, Auxiliaries, Past Perfect, Simple Past, Present Perfect, Past Tenses

	candy  +  128270 Thu, 18 Aug 05 05:21 PM Hello,   Many thanks for answering my question.            It has to have been just right.   Actually I found this sentence in an interview. Here's the context with the original sentence; ".................because so many things have to come together for that to work. The voice has to have been just right; the lip sync just right; the puppeteer turns the head just right, and the people doing the hand, everything just happened just right. ......" - by Trey Parker, the director of "Team America"   When I read this, I felt a little strange. The sentence looked grammatically correct, but it didn't make sense to me.   I couldn't understnad why he didn't say "the voice had to be just right." I'm still a little confused, so let me reread all of your postings again.   Mr. Pedantic, if it's a rare construction, no wonder I didn't get the meaning clearly......(it's a great excuse!        )   Paco, rvw and Mr. P, thanks again!   Candy candy Constructions, Interviews

	MrPedantic  +  128376 Thu, 18 Aug 05 11:40 PM Let us know if it's still unclear, Candy! MrPedantic