Tense usage

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tyro

#339711 Thu, 15 Mar 07 11:01 PM

What is the difference among the following phrases?

It was done...
It has been done...
It had been done...

Thanks

tyro

Joined on Tue, Feb 8 2005

New Member (11)

Tenses

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Philip

#339727 Thu, 15 Mar 07 11:30 PM

Tyro wrote:
What is the difference among the following phrases?

It was done...perfectly
It has been done...by now
It had been done...before you asked for it

Thanks

Does this help?

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (6,181)

At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

Tenses

tyro

#339737 Thu, 15 Mar 07 11:51 PM

Thanks, Philip. Can you please elaborate on the "it has been done" portion. What is the difference between has been and had been?

Tyro

tyro

Difference between, Tenses

Doll

#339931 Fri, 16 Mar 07 01:09 PM

If you say it had been done this sentence has nothing to do with present.Everything starts and finisnhes in past but if you use present perfect it has its effect still today.

Doll

Joined on Sat, Mar 10 2007

Turkey

Senior Member (2,521)

I am a netizen!

Tenses, Present perfect

Philip

#339948 Fri, 16 Mar 07 02:03 PM

Tyro wrote:
Thanks, Philip. Can you please elaborate on the "it has been done" portion. What is the difference between has been and had been?

Tyro

Present perfect is used to describe an action completed in terms of the present (now): I have seen that film many times, she has made a mistake in spelling, we have all heard that before.

Past perfect is used to describe an action completed in terms of another past action: I had read the book before I saw the movie, she had made many mistakes before she proofread the paper, we had all heard the same story before we had the meeting.

I hope these explanations and examples will help.