Kins_10  +  491065 Thu, 20 Mar 08 02:05 PM What are the differences between these two tenses? 1. I have been told that the seminar will be held next week. 2. I was told that the seminar will be held next week. And, can someone please explain the use of the past perfect tense in this sentence? 3. Down the basement, the day Deb and I said goodbye, my hand holding the gun had seemed the centre of everything, Laplace's fixed point from which the rest of the universe could be understood. thanks. Kins_10 Joined on Thu, Feb 21 2008 sarawak New Member 38 kins Tenses, Past Perfect

	Philip  +  491073 Thu, 20 Mar 08 02:26 PM No difference between the first two sentences. The gun no longer meant as much as it had in the past, previously. Philip Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005 Veteran Member 8,733 At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen Difference Between

	Kins_10  +  492009 Sun, 23 Mar 08 04:20 AM Maybe i didn't explain myself very clearly. What i meant was how do the past tense and pluperfect affect the entire meaning of this sentence in the context of time? 1. Does the have-been used in this sentence indicate an act of repetition? 2.  Does the use of was indicate the person was told only once at the time when he is uttering it? Thanks. Kins_10 Tenses, Past Tenses

	Avangi  +  492012 Sun, 23 Mar 08 05:13 AM Kins_10 “ Maybe i didn't explain myself very clearly. What i meant was how do the past tense and pluperfect affect the entire meaning of this sentence in the context of time? 1. Does the have-been used in this sentence indicate an act of repetition? 2.  Does the use of was indicate the person was told only once at the time when he is uttering it? Thanks. ” I agree  with your analyses of 1.& 2., but I don't hear them as mutually exclusive.  1. could still be a single telling and 2. could still be multiple tellings   -    but the inference is as you suggest. Re #3, I get the feeling there's a third point in time which would have been made clear in earlier context.  There's also a past tense after the basement, and there's the time of the telling. So past perfect would refer to the basement incident.  The use of past perfect suggests that things would soon change in the next time frame (which would still be simple past to the narrator.) Avangi Joined on Mon, Nov 19 2007 Veteran Member 8,172 ". . . le plaisir delicieux et toujours nouveau d'une occupation inutile." - Henri de Regnier Tenses, Past Perfect, Simple Past, Past Tenses